There are many programs for editing ASCII-text files available for Unix systems. Note that the character-encoding on CMS does not use ASCII, but EBCDIC, so you cannot simply transfer files between the two. When ftp-ing textfiles, make sure to always use ASCII mode! That is also important for transfers from/to Macs or PCs, as those have different end-of-line conventions than Unix.
Finally you have reached the point where Unix should look really familiar.
While most Unix-aficionados use vi, emacs, or pico for
editing purposes, here at UIC we have the - The Hessling-Editor!
This program is extremely similar to your good old xedit, so you should
have no trouble at all using it. We even have a pre-defined alias for
the: you can simply type x filename to
edit (or create) your file in the.
There are nevertheless differences between XEDIT and the - mostly those
making the more powerful and userfriendly, e.g. better block copying
features. Check out the computer center's the-resources.
A useful article about the was also published in the A3C
Connection.
Wait a moment! Whatever happened to the PROFILE XEDIT customization file
you used to have on CMS? Well, on Unix, all customization
files (also known as resource files) are system files, so their name
starts with a period (dot). Besides, they almost always end in "rc". The file
in which the (or x) stores its settings is called .therc
and can be edited easily. Check here
for details on getting the default .therc file.
Once you have gotten used a bit to Unix, you may be ready for a mainstream
editor, too. The reason you might want to learn pico is simple: it is
the default editor for the email program pine, and it is simple to use,
yet powerful. It automatically wraps long lines for you, and it displays frequently
used commands at the bottom of the screen. Commands in pico are always
combinations of a single letter with the Control-key (e.g. Ctrl-x,
meaning you need to hold down Ctrl and hit x
to exit). Frequently, you will see the Control-key denoted by a caret-symbol
^, so the exit-command is also denoted by ^X.
While in general Unix is always case-sensitive, in pico case doesn't
matter. Because pico is so easy to learn, there is rather little documentation
for it, but IIT
has a long and pretty complete one.
Unfortunately, pico is not installed on all Unix systems you may encounter
(e.g. it is missing on daedalus, the former icarus machine). Enter vi,
the most widespread application in the Unix world. vi foobar
opens file foobar for editing and creates it if it didn't exist. But
wait - in vi you can't simply start typing! Letters typed on the keyboard
are interpreted as commands, not as text. To actually insert text, type
i at the position where you would like to insert something, or
a for appending text after the current letter.
These two commands get you into insert mode, but to get out, you have to hit
the Esc key (if you hit it without being in insert mode,
it will just beep at you). You delete a letter by x-ing
it out, a word via dw, and a line via dd
(don't ask for an explanation of that one). vi takes time to master,
but for power users it is indispensable. Here are some Introductions to vi
from our Computer
Center, from IIT,
and from Colorado
State University. Finally, a tutorial with all the advanced options from
University of Hawaii.
emacs really isn't for the ordinary user, but its multitude of features and shortcuts, as well as its tight integration with the gnu C-compiler, make it an extremely useful tool for power programmers. pico was actually designed as a very simplified version of emacs. The GNU EMACS manual is a book, slightly more readable is the documentation for MicroEMACS.
