x 80 characters. It has to be in the basic state
of your Unix session or your command prompt, i.e. accept Unix commands
or line commands as input. Then please type
exaeditas a command. As the result of the execution of this command, you receive a picture similar to the following one:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1| |
2| |
3| |
4| |
5| |
6| |
7| |
8|MAIN exaEdit 02B TOP LINE |
9| |
10| |
11| |
12| |
13| |
14| |
15| |
16| ....;....1....;....2....;....3....;....4....;....5....;....6....;....7...|
17| |
18|exaEdit |
19|_ |
20| |
21| |
22| |
23| |
24| MAIN 0 19/ 1 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Strictly speaking, you only get the inner part of the broken line box
in your window. In this manual there is additionally shown a frame with
the numbering 1 - 80 on top and 1 - 24 on the left side in order to be
able to refer to the distinctive parts of each picture.
In line 8, which is (in the real editor window) optically emphasized, exaEdit identifies itself with its name in columns 10 to 16 and its version number (consisting of two digits and one letter) in columns 18 to 20.
Behind the version number there are the words TOP LINE. This means that this is the first line of the workfile. The rest of the workfile is empty since you did not tell the editor a file to edit. For exaEdit a workfile always consists of the top line and the actual data. The top line only exists in the workfile, it is never written in a file together with the data.
In the columns 1 to 8 of line 8 you can read the word
This is the name exaEdit gave the workfile. This name implies that there can be more than one workfile; but you will learn more about this in one of the following sections.
In line 16 of the picture above, there is a ruler which is intended to help you to horizontally orientate yourself in the data the editor displays.
In line 18 of the picture, there is the display of the word
exaEditwhich is issued as an ivitation to enter commands if exaEdit has nothing else to say (this will be commented on later).
The last line of the picture is the status line, which informs you on different states and gives some other pieces of information.
In the status line in column 5, the name of the workfile is repeated.
In column 73, you can find the number of records of the workfile. Since this workfile is empty, there is the number 0 issued.
In columns 75 to 79, the cursor position is indicated. As the cursor is
in line 19, column 1 at the moment, you can read the output
`19/ 1'.
The lines above the ruler, in this case lines 1 to 15, are called the
of the window. The lines between ruler and status line, here lines 17 to 23, are called the
of the window.
After so much dry information, you are allowed, now, to do something: Please, move the cursor with the arrow keys across the window and observe, while doing this, how the display in the status line changes. And, please, note the cursor behaviour when the cursor is moved out of the window. Keep in mind this behaviour and use it when you have to move the cursor while editing. Since not a small amount of your work with the editor will consist of cursor movement, it will be useful for the efficiency of your work to do this with a minimum of effort.
Now, move the cursor back to its initial position (so that there is
'19/ 1' displayed at the lower right corner again).