Programmer's File Editor ------------------------ Welcome to Programmer's File Editor. This file is the place to start looking at the program: if you've not seen PFE before there's a synopsis of its main features; and if you've used earlier versions there's some essential information on major changes. Below you'll find 1. ABSTRACT A brief list of PFE's main features 2. USING AND DISTRIBUTING PFE The terms on which you can use it and pass it on 3. CONTACTING THE AUTHOR How to pass on your criticisms, suggestions, bug reports and maybe even praise 4. WHERE TO GET PFE Places to look for PFE on the Internet and elsewhere 5. UPGRADING FROM 0.05.007 AND EARLIER Important information if you're currently using the previous release 6. OTHER FILES YOU SHOULD LOOK AT The other important text files in this release 7. THE FILES YOU SHOULD GET What should be in your distribution set 8. INSTALLING PFE How to install everything 9. WHICH VERSION SHOULD YOU USE? How to pick the most appropriate version --- Alan Phillips ( A.Phillips@lancaster.ac.uk ) March 1995 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. ABSTRACT ----------- This is the 0.06.001 release of Programmer's File Editor, a large-capacity multi-file programming oriented editor for Windows 3.1x, Windows NT on Intel and PowerPC platforms, and Windows 95 PFE includes the following features: - The size of file it can handle is limited only by the total amount of virtual memory available - No arbitrary limit on the number of lines a file can contain - It can edit multiple files, the number being limited only by the available system resources - Accepts files dropped from File Manager or other drag-drop server - Allows multiple edit windows showing the same file - Multi-level undo facility - Can read and write files in UNIX format using LF as line terminator, with automatic format detection - Can run multiple instances if desired - Backup copies can be maintained of existing files when saving - Most-recently-used list of files allows easy selection between sessions - Line numbers can be shown in any edit window if required - Any installed fixed-pitch screen font, including TrueType, can be used in edit windows - The most frequent operations can be performed from active buttons on a tear-off toolbar - Active status bar reports settings and allows easy alteration of common ones - Text can be copied and moved by dragging and dropping - Tabs can be inserted as TAB characters or spaces - DOS commands, such as compilers, can be run with the output captured in an edit window - An application being developed can be quickly launched from a configurable dialog - Commonly-used text can be inserted in a simple operation from template libraries - Fully-remappable keyboard, including two-key operation similar to MicroEMACS and mapping of Alt keys to functions - Multiple sets of key mappings can be stored, and selected as required from a dialog or from the command line - Keystrokes and menu commands can be recorded in a replayable keyboard macro - Commonly-used program development tools can be configured into a list and started simply from a dialog - Files can be printed either in total, by line range, or selected text only - Automatic line indenting and removal of trailing spaces - Automatic configuration of edit options depending on file type - Automatic configuration of tab sizes depending on file type - Automatic brace alignment when editing C source - Text indent/undent operations - Optional automatic text wrapping at configurable margin - Can mail files to MAPI-compliant mailers like Microsoft Mail - User-configurable help menu - Comprehensive help file with help buttons on all dialogs and F1 help available for system messages - Mouse help available on screen and menu items - Double click on right button starts help engine for help on keywords in edit windows - Allows Windows to be closed down and the system rebooted from the system menu - Uses standard MDI methods to be fully compatible with other Windows apps - All operations are TWI compliant - Windows can be tiled vertically to maximize width - Window text, window background, workspace, toolbar and status bar colours fully configurable Additionally, the editor can be controlled by another application across a DDE client-server link. 2. USING AND DISTRIBUTING PFE ----------------------------- PFE may be used in any way, for any purpose, at no cost. In may be distributed by any means, provided that the original files as supplied by the author remain intact and no charge is made other than for reasonable distribution costs. You do not need to register to use PFE or buy a licence. PFE may be placed on any archive or BBS system PFE may not be distributed as an essential component of any commercial product without a prior license agreement with the author 3. CONTACTING THE AUTHOR ------------------------ I would very much appreciate hearing from you if you use PFE and find problems, or if you can think of ways it could be improved - and even (or is that 'especially'?) if you just think it's great. Even if the facility you would like to see appears to be of interest only to you, tell me about it - you'd be surprised how many ideas in that class have a much wider appeal. You can contact me by e-mail at A.Phillips@lancaster.ac.uk I will try to reply to all the mail I receive, but it may take a week or so if I'm very busy. Please DON'T mail me on CompuServe - you may find an account there with my name on it, but it's owned by my employers and I don't visit it often. I don't respond to mail I find there not related to work, sorry. If YOU are on CompuServe it's easy to mail me on the Internet - just address the mail to >internet:A.Phillips@lancaster.ac.uk However, this may cost you a little more than mail to other CompuServe users 4. WHERE TO GET PFE ------------------- PFE is distributed in three ZIP files. The names they have when they leave me are pfe0601.zip The 16-bit edition for Windows 3.1x pfe0601i.zip The 32-bit edition for Windows 95 and Windows NT on Intel platforms pfe0601p.zip The 32-bit edition for Windows NT on PowerPC platforms [Note that the characters after 'pfe' are digits zero-six-zero-one] I post PFE to three main archive sites: - For the UK Higher Education sector, it's available in the HENSA/micros archive on the micros.hensa.ac.uk system; use Internet ftp, Gopher or WWW to find it - On the Internet, I place copies on two archives: oak.oakland.edu (SimTel) ftp.cica.indiana.edu On Usenet, I post an announcement of each release to the comp.os.ms-windows.announce, comp.os.ms-windows.utilities and comp.editors groups, and send the distribution set to the moderator of the comp.binaries.ms-windows group for posting. Though I do not place it there myself, copies should be available from CompuServe in the WINSHARE forum within a few days of each release. The filenames there will be pfe61.zip The 16-bit edition for Windows 3.1x pfe61i.zip The 32-bit edition for Windows 95 and Windows NT on Intel platforms pfe61p.zip The 32-bit edition for Windows NT on PowerPC platforms If you have a favourite BBS or archive that does not yet have a copy, I would very much appreciate your posting a copy there too. 5. UPGRADING FROM 0.05.007 AND EARLIER -------------------------------------- The release of PFE prior to this one was 0.05.007. If you are using this, you'll find that your keymap (.key) files and template (.tpl) files will continue to work. Keymap files prodiced with earlier releases than 0.05.007 won't be recognised. However, there have been many changes to the initialisation file (pfe.ini or pfe32.ini depending on the edition you use). The first major change is that you no longer ever need to edit it to change options. Now there's an Options Preferences command that does it all - and you'll find that there are lots more options to choose from too. The second major change involves the filters you define for the file open dialogs. Your existing ones will not be recognised, so please use Options Preferences to redefine them. Thirdly, the way the various Windows "managers" (like File Manager and Print Manager) are handled from the Execute menu has changed, allowing you to start a full command line with arguments. Your existing definitions will not be used; again, please use Options Preferences to set up what you want. Finally, the system of associating file and window modes with file extensions has been completely redesigned. The modes you can set now include window and text colours; and instead of mapping a single extension to a set of modes, you now build "mode groups" containing wildcarded filename patterns, each of which has a set of modes associated with it. Again your old mode settings won't be recognised, so you'll need to use Options Preferences to use the new system. If you wish, you can remove the [fileopen-filters], [modes] and [managers] sections from your initialisation file. One other change to note is that the default extension used for making backup files has changed from ".&&&" to ".$$$". You can also customise it with the Options Preferences command 6. OTHER FILES YOU SHOULD LOOK AT --------------------------------- The distribution set contains several other text files of important information. For the answers to some of the common questions that users have, see FAQ.TXT. Looking in here can save you a lot of worry and experimentation, and save you from posting your question to newsgroups and mailing lists. The CHANGES.TXT file tells you what's changed from earlier releases. If you find something unexpected going on, look in here too - it could be a feature rather than a bug. The PROBLEMS.TXT file tells you about any major problems that were discovered too late to be addressed in this release, and what you can do if you hit them. 7. THE FILES YOU SHOULD GET --------------------------- There are a small number of files in the PFE distribution. You should find the following items: 16-bit Edition: pfe.exe The editor itself pfe.hlp The help file $pfedos.exe A helper module, needed to run commands and capture output $pfedos.pif The PIF file for this module readme.txt This file changes.txt Changes from previous releases faq.txt Frequently Asked Questions problems.txt Information on late-breaking problems 32-bit Edition (Intel): pfe32.exe The editor itself pfe32.dbg Debugging symbols pfe.hlp The help file $pfeds32.exe A helper module, needed to run commands and capture output readme.txt This file changes.txt Changes from previous releases faq.txt Frequently Asked Questions problems.txt Information on late-breaking problems 32-bit Edition (PowerPC): pfe32.exe The editor itself pfe.hlp The help file $pfeds32.exe A helper module, needed to run commands and capture output readme.txt This file changes.txt Changes from previous releases faq.txt Frequently Asked Questions problems.txt Information on late-breaking problems The help file pfe.hlp is identical for the 16-bit and 32-bit editions. 8. INSTALLING PFE ----------------- There is no setup program for PFE, as it doesn't really need one. Installation is done by simply copying the supplied files: 16-bit Edition: Copy pfe.exe, pfe.hlp, $pfedos.exe and $pfedos.pif to a suitable directory. This need not be on your path; but it's important that all the files are in the _same_ directory 32-bit Edition: Copy pfe32.exe, pfe.hlp, $pfeds32.exe to a suitable directory. This need not be on your path; but it's important that all the files are in the _same_ directory. If you have the Intel version you might like to copy pfe32.dbg into this directory also; in the event of a program fault your Dr Watson logs will contain a symbolic trace, which will make problem diagnosis easier if you're able to mail the details to me. It's a good idea to keep the 16-bit and 32-bit editions in the same place; then you will need only one copy of the help file. After you've installed PFE, the best thing to do is start it up, then use the Options Preferences command to explore the customisation options and set it up to run as you prefer. 9. WHICH VERSION SHOULD YOU USE? -------------------------------- The Windows, Windows NT and Windows 95 operating systems allow you a lot of flexibility in what versions of programs you can run. The pros and cons of the various combinations are these: System Edition Comments ------ ------- -------- Windows 3.1x 16-bit RECOMMENDED. All facilities will be available, and this combination is tested in development 32-bit Intel Will run if you have Win32s 1.20. You will not be able to run commands and capture output, and you may find the program crashes when you try to setup your printer. 3D dialog effects are not available. This combination is not tested in development Windows NT 3.1 32-bit Intel Will not run (Intel) 16-bit Intel Will run (see Windows NT 3.5) but you should really upgrade to Windows NT 3.5 Windows NT 3.5 32-bit Intel RECOMMENDED. All facilities will be available, (Intel) and this combination is tested in development 16-bit Will run, but you will not be able to run commands and capture output. This combination is not tested in development Windows NT 3.5 32-bit PowerPC RECOMMENDED. This is the only version that will (PowerPC) run in this environment; there is no choice. This combination is not tested in development. Windows 95 32-bit Intel RECOMMENDED. All facilities are available, but at this release integration with the Windows 95 look and feel is not complete. This combination is tested in development on Beta M7 16-bit Intel Should run, but you will not be able to run commands and capture output. This combination is not tested in development