Lesson 3 Editing a Text File

Lesson 3 presents the commands that permit you to do the following:

open an editor file for editing: TEXT
print an editor file: LIST
edit a line: MODIFY
add new lines to the end of a text file: ADD
add new lines in the middle of a text file: ADD
erase a line of text file: DELETE
renumber lines: GATHER ALL
move lines: GATHER
clear the file from the editor's workspace: DELETE ALL

Open an EDIT/3000 file for editing

Using the editor, you have learned to create and save files.




	NOTE: Before trying this, find out whether your computer is connected to a printer and where that printer is located.

To print a file from the editor, the file first must be brought into the work area.

Get into the editor and at the / prompt enter:

   TEXT DOCUMENTReturn

The TEXT command instructs the computer to find the specified file, and, if it exists, to put it into the editor's workspace for printing or for file editing.

To display the entire DOCUMENT file to your screen, enter:

   LIST ALLReturn

This file should look very familiar to you by now.

Sending a file to the printer

With a slight change, the LIST or L command prints the file on your line printer.

To send the file that you are working on to the printer, enter:

   LIST ALL, OFFLINEReturn

The LIST command tells the editor to display the file on the screen.
The ALL parameter tells the computer to display all of the file.
The addition of , OFFLINE tells the computer to send the file (or lines of the file) not to the screen but to the printer.

You should eventually see this message on the screen:

   /LIST ALL, OFFLINE

   *** OFF LINE LISTING BEGUN. ***

   /

This tells you the computer has started working on your command.

If your printer is busy, your file might take a while to print.

It may take a few more moments before the editor prompt (/) reappears on the screen. Its reappearance tells that you the file is on its way to the line printer.




	NOTE: On its way to the line printer: The printer can handle only one file at a time. If other people have sent files to the printer — especially if they are long files — your file might have to wait in line to be printed. Your file is given a number and is printed in proper order, along with all of the other waiting files. The order of printouts can be altered by the system manager.

You can also print a single line:

   LIST 1, OFFLINE

This would print line 1.

Or you can print a range of lines:

   LIST 2/5, OFFLINE

This would print lines 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Identifying your document

The paper copy of your file is called a printout, hard copy, or listing. Your listing can be easily distinguished from other users' listings by the header (front) and trailer (back) pages of your listing. Your logon identifier appears several times across these pages.

Go pick up your listing.

Problems?

Did your file not print out? Your system manager or someone else may have created another standardized way of indicating a line printer or some other printing device. If so, using OFFLINE might not succeed. Ask your account manager for the correct way to indicate the line printer for this use of the editor LIST command.

Adding lines of text: ADD

The ADD command automatically begins adding lines at the end of the existing file, no matter where the end of the file is found.

From within the editor, display the entire DOCUMENT file:

   LIST ALLReturn

Next enter:

   ADDReturn

This brings a new, blank line labeled 7 onto the screen. You are now ready for typing. Add the following lines 7 through 10 to your file:

Remember that corrections have to be made one step at a time.Return

After each step you can see what you accomplished by pressingReturn

Return.  When you are done, leave the MODIFY step by pressingReturn

Return twice in a row.Return

//Return

Your screen is probably cluttered, but your display should show this:

/LIST ALL

    1     EDIT/3000 is a hard-working program.  Your operator would

    2     call it an entire subsystem of your computer operating system.

    3     It has dozens of its own commands, some of them quite

    4     elaborate.  It even uses three REDO subcommands that you

    5     used in module 1.

    6     The ADD command adds lines at the end of an existing file.

/ADD

    7     Remember that corrections have to be made one step at a time.

    8     After each step you can see what you accomplished by pressing

   19     Return.  When you are done, leave the MODIFY step by pressing

   10     Return twice in a row.

   11     //

/

Adding lines in the middle of a text file: ADD

What if you want to add text in the middle of a file? Using ADD with a line number starts a new line immediately after the number you have specified.

Enter:

   ADD 6Return

and at 6.1 type the following:

I decided to add more lines in the middle of what I alreadyReturn

had.Return

Return

//Return

Enter:

   LIST ALLReturn

Your screen should look like this:

    1     EDIT/3000 is a hard-working program.  Your operator would

    2     call it an entire subsystem of your computer operating system.

    3     It has dozens of its own commands, some of them quite

    4     elaborate.  It even uses three REDO subcommands that you

    5     used in module 1.

    6     The ADD command adds lines at the end of an existing file.

    6.1   I decided to add more lines in the middle of what I already

    6.2   had.

    6.3

    7     Remember that corrections have to be made one step at a time.

    8     After each step you can see what you accomplished by pressing

    9     Return.  When you are done, leave the MODIFY step by pressing

   10     Return twice in a row.

Notice that to insert new lines between line 6 and line 7, the editor added the new lines with increments of 0.1 (one-tenth). It can also add lines in increments of 0.01 or 0.001.

The editor would allow you to do this (but do not do this now):

   /ADD 6.001

The editor would let you start typing on line 6.001 and then on 6.002 and then on 6.003, and so on. When you got to line 6.009, the editor would increment the line count to 6.01.

Using increments of 0.001, the editor could add as many as 999 new lines between line 6 and line 7. If you need still more lines, you can use the GATHER ALL command to renumber the lines. Then add lines where you want them.

Erase a line: DELETE

Make sure you are in command mode.

The DELETE or D command erases a line or a range of lines.

Try entering

   DELETE 6.2Return

It should appear this way on the screen:

   /DELETE 6.2

       6.2   had.

DELETE displays the line that you erased.

Use LIST ALLReturn to verify that the line has been erased.

To delete a series of consecutive lines, use DELETE and specify the line range you wish to erase. In the following example, lines 7 through 10 of your document are erased.

Try this and see what happens:

   DELETE 7/10Return

Renumbering lines: GATHER ALL

The GATHER ALL command instructs the editor to renumber lines. That's useful when you have added lines between lines and the numbering scheme begins to get out of hand.

Try this:

   GATHER ALLReturn

   LIST ALLReturn

You should see the following:

    1     EDIT/3000 is a hard-working program.  Your operator would

    2     call it an entire subsystem of your computer operating system.

    3     It has dozens of its own commands, some of them quite

    4     elaborate.  It even uses three REDO subcommands that you

    5     used in module 1.

    6     The ADD command adds lines at the end of an existing file.

    7     I decided to add more lines in the middle of what I already

    8

Now the line numbers are neat and tidy. Notice that you can now add lines between line 6 and line 7 and have the increment start with 0.1 all over again.

Moving lines: GATHER

The GATHER command lets you move one or more lines from one place to another.

Enter this:

   GATHER 7 TO 1.1Return

You will see this:

   /GATHER 7 TO 1.1

       7     =>      1.1

The editor displays the number of the line being moved and shows the line number where it will appear (line 1.1).

Use LIST ALLReturn to verify that line 7 has been moved to line 1.1 and that line 7 has disappeared.

You should see this:

    1     EDIT/3000 is a hard-working program.  Your operator would

    1.1   I decided to add more lines in the middle of what I already

    2     call it an entire subsystem of your computer operating system.

    3     It has dozens of its own commands, some of them quite

    4     elaborate.  It even uses three REDO subcommands that you

    5     used in module 1.

    6     The ADD command adds lines at the end of an existing file.

    8

Do you notice?

To move line 7 between lines 1 and 2, you used the GATHER command to move line 7 to line 1.1.

How would you move lines 3 through 5 directly under line 1.1?

   GATHER 3/5 TO 1.2Return

The 3/5 tells the editor to move lines 3 through 5.

Try it. What happens?

Enter:

   LIST ALLReturn

What do you see?

Moving the lines has jumbled the meaning of the text. And you now have line numbers with decimals. It would be useful to renumber the lines.

Renumbering lines

Do this:

   GATHER ALLReturn

Then use

   LIST ALLReturn

What happens?

The GATHER ALL command instructs the editor to renumber lines lines of the work file. That becomes useful when you have added or moved lines between lines and the numbering scheme threatens to get out of hand.

Save the file.

Enter:

   KEEPReturn

The editor already knows the name of the file, so you do not have to specify a file name this time. (If you specified a different file name — KEEP DOCFILE — the editor would know that you wanted to keep your work under a new file name.)

So you should see this on the screen:

   DOCUMENT

   DOCUMENT ALREADY EXISTS - RESPOND YES TO PURGE OLD AND KEEP NEW

   PURGE OLD?

Enter:

   YESReturn

Editing a text line: MODIFY

Use the MODIFY command to edit lines of text.

For example: MODIFY 22 tells the computer to let you edit line 22, if there is a line 22.

MODIFY Works Like REDO

Do you recall the commands used with the REDO command in module 1 to edit command lines?

The MODIFY command in the editor uses three of the same commands: D, I, and R.

D

Deletes the character above it.

DDDD erases four characters, the ones above each D.

I

Inserts character(s) above the I.

R

Replaces character(s) above the R with new character(s).

Like REDO, MODIFY retrieves a line for correction.

STEP 1.

Make one correction on the line.

STEP 2.

Press Return.

Pressing Return once displays the line again for another correction.

STEP 3.

If the line is now correct, press Return again.

Pressing Return twice in a row signals the end of your corrections on that particular line.

If the line is still not correct, go to STEP 4.

STEP 4.

Make another correction on the line. Go to STEP 3.

Enter:

   ADDReturn

Then type the following line, exactly as shown, to the end of the DOCUMENT file:

   SAVE is used to save alll or prt of the work file.Return

   //Return

Now, enter the following:

   MODIFY 9Return

Using the D, I, and R commands of MODIFY, correct the line above to read as follows:

KEEP is used to save all or part of the work file.

Follow the editing step by step.

/MODIFY 9

    9     SAVE is used to save alll or prt of the work file.

          RKEEPReturn

    9     KEEP is used to save alll or prt of the work file.

                                dReturn

    9     KEEP is used to save all or prt of the work file.

                                       iaReturn

    9     KEEP is used to save all or part of the work file.

          Return

Notice:

The editor prompts you for the changes that you want to make.
When the line is correct, press Return again to tell the editor to accept the line the way it is.

Unlike the REDO command, the MODIFY command lets you modify blocks of text.

You could enter MODIFY 1/4 to edit lines 1 through 4.
The computer would first display line 1 for editing.
When you finish editing line 1 and press Return twice, the editor displays line 2 for editing, and so on.

Try that, if you like, with the file that you have been working on.

Starting a new editor file: DELETE ALL




	NOTE: Read this lesson completely `before` performing any of the following. Then, if you like, go back to do the practice exercises.

The editor's workspace is an area of computer memory that is separate from and independent of disk memory. So, it is possible to have one version of a file on the disk and edit that same file in the editor's workspace. Naturally, the more you edit the version in the workspace, the more it comes to differ from the version that is saved on the disk.

If you wish, you can use KEEP DOCUMENT to save to disk the workspace version of the DOCUMENT file that you have been editing throughout this module. As soon as you do that, the two versions are identical — until you begin more editing on the workspace version; however, if you want to clear the workspace without saving your editing changes, enter:

   DELETE ALLReturn

This erases everything in the editor's workspace memory area, but the file that is kept on disk is unchanged.

Because this can have disastrous consequences if typed in error, the EDIT/3000 program gives the following warning:

   IF IT IS OK TO CLEAR RESPOND "YES"

   CLEAR?

A NOReturn reply to this warning halts any deletion.

Use LIST ALLReturn to verify that there is no file in the editor's workspace.

With the editor's workspace completely clear, you could start a new file if you wanted to. To start a new file, you would enter the ADD command:

   ADDReturn

If there is no file in the workspace (you entered DELETE ALLReturn), then the editor starts a fresh new file with line 1.

Lesson 3 Exercises

Create a 20-line file and save that file as FILEA.
List all of FILEA to your terminal screen.
List lines 5 through 15 of FILEA to your terminal screen.
Print a copy of FILEA to a line printer.
Print lines 15 through 20 to a line printer.
Delete the first three lines of FILEA.
How would you "undo" step 6 without reentering the three deleted lines?
Move line 3 of FILEA to line 6.1.
Move the last five lines of FILEA to the beginning of the file (before line 1).
Renumber the lines of your file.
Study the following text line:
Mary will be coming ovr for dinner.
If you were to modify this line, which subcommands would you use to make the following corrections?
1. Change "Mary" to "Geno".
  Mary will be coming ovr for dinner.
2. Correctly insert the "e" in "ovr" so that it reads "over."
  Geno will be coming ovr for dinner.
3. Delete the word "coming."
  Geno will be coming over for dinner.
Suppose that you are in the editor and have just retrieved a file called MYFILE from the disk. You make some editing changes to MYFILE. After completing the edit, you are ready to start working on a new file.
If you performed a DELETE ALL right now (without performing a KEEP), what version of MYFILE will be retrieved from disk the next time that you needed to do some more editing?
What, if anything, would be lost?

Lesson 3 Editing a Text File

Technical documentation

» Table of Contents

» Glossary

» Index

Open an EDIT/3000 file for editing

Sending a file to the printer

Identifying your document

Problems?

Adding lines of text: ADD

Adding lines in the middle of a text file: ADD

Erase a line: DELETE

Renumbering lines: GATHER ALL

Moving lines: GATHER

Renumbering lines

Editing a text line: MODIFY

MODIFY Works Like REDO

Starting a new editor file: DELETE ALL

Lesson 3 Exercises