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The workfile
exaEdit is a file editor but it does not directly process the
files
which you may know e.g. from a hard disk.
At the beginning of each exaEdit session, the data of a file are
read record by record from the storage medium and then put into the main
memory of the computer. Afterwards you can make your changes, which only
have an effect on the copy in the main memory. At the end of your
exaEdit session, you can write the (changed) version from the
main memory back to the data storage medium. The copy of a file in the
main memory is called
-
workfile
This concept offers the advantage that mistakes which might happen
during your editing the file do not automatically concern the original
file. On the other hand, any changes are lost if the computer or the
operating system fail and you did not save your changes before. But this
case will not occur too often and there are some ways to limit the
damage.
exaEdit offers the option to have several workfiles at the
same time. They may contain the same file or different files. But,
always, one of these workfiles is the current one, which is
visible in the window and to which the commands refer.
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