117 lines
6.1 KiB
Plaintext
117 lines
6.1 KiB
Plaintext
THIS MATERIAL IS PROVIDED "AS IS". THERE ARE NO WARRANTIES OF
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ANY KIND WITH REGARD TO THIS MATERIAL, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
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LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
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FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Neither Hewlett-Packard nor
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Hugh Mahon shall be liable for errors contained herein, nor for
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incidental or consequential damages in connection with the
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furnishing, performance or use of this material. Neither
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Hewlett-Packard nor Hugh Mahon assumes any responsibility for
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the use or reliability of this software or documentation. This
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software and documentation is totally UNSUPPORTED. There is no
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support contract available. Hewlett-Packard has done NO
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Quality Assurance on ANY of the program or documentation. You
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may find the quality of the materials inferior to supported
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materials.
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This software may be distributed under the terms of Larry Wall's
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Artistic license, a copy of which is included in this distribution.
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This notice must be included with this software and any
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derivatives.
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Any modifications to this software by anyone but the original author
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must be so noted.
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The editor 'ee' (easy editor) is intended to be a simple, easy to use
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terminal-based screen oriented editor that requires no instruction to
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use. Its primary use would be for people who are new to computers, or who
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use computers only for things like e-mail.
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ee's simplified interface is highlighted by the use of pop-up menus which
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make it possible for users to carry out tasks without the need to
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remember commands. An information window at the top of the screen shows
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the user the operations available with control-keys.
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ee allows users to use full eight-bit characters. If the host system has
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the capabilities, ee can use message catalogs, which would allow users to
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translate the message catalog into other languages which use eight-bit
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characters. See the file ee.i18n.guide for more details.
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ee relies on the virtual memory abilities of the platform it is running on
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and does not have its own memory management capabilities.
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I am releasing ee because I hate to see new users and non-computer types
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get frustrated by vi, and would like to see more intuitive interfaces for
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basic tools (both character-based and graphical) become more pervasive.
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Terminal capabilities and communication speeds have evolved considerably
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since the time in which vi's interface was created, allowing much more
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intuitive interfaces to be used. Since character-based I/O won't be
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completely replaced by graphical user interfaces for at least a few more
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years, I'd like to do what I can to make using computers with less
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glamorous interfaces as easy to use as possible. If terminal interfaces
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are still used in ten years, I hope neophytes won't still be stuck with
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only vi.
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For a text editor to be easy to use requires a certain set of abilities. In
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order for ee to work, a terminal must have the ability to position the cursor
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on the screen, and should have arrow keys that send unique sequences
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(multiple characters, the first character is an "escape", octal code
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'\033'). All of this information needs to be in a database called "terminfo"
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(System V implementations) or "termcap" (usually used for BSD systems). In
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case the arrow keys do not transmit unique sequences, motion operations are
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mapped to control keys as well, but this at least partially defeats the
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purpose. The curses package is used to handle the I/O which deals with the
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terminal's capabilities.
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While ee is based on curses, I have included here the source code to
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new_curse, a subset of curses developed for use with ee. 'curses' often
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will have a defect that reduces the usefulness of the editor relying upon
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it.
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The file new_curse.c contains a subset of 'curses', a package for
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applications to use to handle screen output. Unfortunately, curses
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varies from system to system, so I developed new_curse to provide
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consistent behavior across systems. It works on both SystemV and BSD
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systems, and while it can sometimes be slower than other curses packages,
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it will get the information on the screen painted correctly more often
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than vendor supplied curses. Unless problems occur during the building
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of ee, it is recommended that you use new_curse rather than the curses
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supplied with your system.
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If you experience problems with data being displayed improperly, check
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your terminal configuration, especially if you're using a terminal
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emulator, and make sure that you are using the right terminfo entry
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before rummaging through code. Terminfo entries often contain
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inaccuracies, or incomplete information, or may not totally match the
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terminal or emulator the terminal information is being used with.
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Complaints that ee isn't working quite right often end up being something
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else (like the terminal emulator being used).
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Both ee and new_curse were developed using K&R C (also known as "classic
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C"), but it can also be compiled with ANSI C. You should be able to
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build ee by simply typing "make". A make file which takes into account
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the characteristics of your system will be created, and then ee will be
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built. If there are problems encountered, you will be notified about
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them.
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ee is the result of several conflicting design goals. While I know that it
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solves the problems of some users, I also have no doubt that some will decry
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its lack of more features. I will settle for knowing that ee does fulfill
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the needs of a minority (but still large number) of users. The goals of ee
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are:
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1. To be so easy to use as to require no instruction.
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2. To be easy to compile and, if necessary, port to new platforms
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by people with relatively little knowledge of C and UNIX.
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3. To have a minimum number of files to be dealt with, for compile
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and installation.
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4. To have enough functionality to be useful to a large number of
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people.
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Hugh Mahon |___|
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h_mahon@fc.hp.com | |
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