Pfe Records With The Options Preferences Command example essay topic

Frequently Asked QuestionsonProgrammer's File Editor Answers in this file refer to facilities available in PFE 1.01. 000] You may find information on any problem you have encountered in the problems. txt file, which lists known major problems in the current release Q. What version of PFE is recommended for my current environments? A. PFE is supplied in two forms: the 16-bit edition (PFE. EXE) and the 32-bit edition (PFE 32. EXE). The recommended versions for various platforms are these: Windows 3.1 x Windows for Workgroups 3.1 x 16-bit Edition Windows NT 3.51 (Intel) Windows NT 4.0 (Intel) Windows 2000 (Intel) Windows 95 Windows 98 32-bit Edition An earlier release of PFE, version 0.07. 002, is also available for Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0 on PowerPC processors.

Note that the 'Intel' versions are also suitable for Intel-compatible processors such as the Cyrix and AMD chip sets Version 1.00. 000 is the last for which a 16-bit Edition will be produced. Q. I'm using the 32-Bit Edition, and I've set up associations so that I can open files in PFE by double clicking the names in File Manager and Explorer. It works fine most of the time, but if the name contains spaces it doesn't - PFE seems to think each part of the name is a filename all by itself A. The problem here is that the most obvious command line to use in your association: pre 32 is not correct. Since PFE allows multiple files to be named on the command line, you must use some extra syntactic elements in the association. To set up your associations easily and correctly, and to enable some right-click menu functionality under Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000, you need to set them up in the 'Associations' panel of the dialog started by the Options Preferences panel. If you want to create associations yourself you can do so: the command line to use isp fe 32 '%1'where the '%1' part ensures that the filename you click on is contained in quotes when the command is issued.

However, if you do this you won't see the context menu items relating to PFE; and you may not find future enhancements will work correctly. Q. I'm using the 32-bit Edition, and sometimes the flashing insertion point marker just disappears and I can't type into any window. If I switch to another application and back to PFE, it works fine. What's wrong? A. You are most probably using a Microsoft IntelliMouse with version 2.2 or later of the drivers that provide a facility known as 'Universal Scrolling' (standard with Windows 98 and Windows 2000). The driver aims to provide wheel support for applications that don't themselves implement it, and there are some bugs in how it works with some programs, including PFE. This version of PFE usually can get around the driver bugs under Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows 98, but there can still be problems under Windows 95 - turning the mouse wheel or clicking on it will cause the symptoms described. The solution is to disable the 'Universal Scrolling' feature for PFE.

Click on Start|Settings|Control Panel and then double click on the Mouse icon to get to the IntelliMouse control panel, and select the 'Wheel' tab at the top of the dialog. Next, click on the 'Exceptions' button, click on 'Add' in the new dialog that appears, and browse to find the PFE 32. EXE executable program file. Clicking on " Open' will add PFE to the list of programs for which the driver will not provide 'Universal Scrolling'.

Once you " ve done this, you " ll still be able to scroll PFE windows by turning the mouse wheel, but you won't be able to scroll by clicking the mouse wheel and moving the mouse. Incidentally, it won't matter if you move the PFE executable to some other folder or install a new version - the mouse driver identifies the program from internal information within the executable data. Q. Why can't I open more than one file at a time with the File Open and File View commands? Early versions of PFE allowed me to do this. A. In this release, the various file opening dialog's all default to allowing you to select only one file at a time. You can use the 'General Options' panel of the dialog started by the OptionsPrefences command to enable multiple selection; however, under Windows NT 3.51 some long file names will not appear correctly (see the next item) Q. I'm using Windows NT 3.51, and I used Options Preferences to allow me to open more than one file at a time in the File Open command. However, my long file names don't a pear any more - I just see the DOS 8.3 names A. There is a basic flaw in Microsoft's design of the library that provides the standard file open dialog's under Windows NT 3.51 (this code is not part of PFE). Essentially, it can't handle long file names THAT CONTAIN SPACES if you also allow multiple files to be selected.

Long file names without spaces are handled correctly; but Microsoft's code automatically shows those with spaces as 8.3 names in order to get around their design error. In its default mode of operation, PFE allows you to open only one file at a time, and here the problem does not arise. Unfortunately, there is no way to beat this problem - if you want to open multiple files at one time, you won't see names with spaces in. On the good side, though, the problem does not arise at all if you " re running Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 Q. I use Windows NT on a DEC Alpha system - is there an executable of PFE 32 for this? A. PFE 32 exists only for Intel hardware; however, users report that on DEC Alpha machines this runs very well under the Intel emulation system. Q. How can I arrange that edit windows are created to use the maximum area available in the MDI client area? A. You can do this with the Options Preferences command.

Start the preferences dialog and select 'Window Control' from the list of option categories on the left. This shows you a panel that lets you configure exactly how child windows will be created Q. Why don't all the True Type fonts I have installed on my system appear in the printer and screen fonts dialog's? A. Because PFE is a programming-oriented text editor, rather than a word processor, it supports only fixed pitch fonts (ones in which all characters occupy the same width on screen or paper). There are, sadly, very few fixed pitch fonts available. There are no plans to add variable fixed pitch support in a future release. Q. I want PFE to remember the names of more than the last 5 files I've edited, so I can pick them quickly from the File menu.

How can I do this? A. You can configure the Most Recently Used (MRU) list with the Options Preferences command. Start the preferences dialog, and select 'MRU List' from the list of option categories on the left. This shows you the panel that configures the MRU list. You can configure the total size of the list, and how many files from the list will appear on the File menu (you will be able to select from the entire list with a dialog command that will follow the list on the menu).

You can also specify that the File menu should be drawn in two columns rather than one if you want to show a large number of files. Note that you will need to exit PFE and restart it before your changes take effect. Q. I don't like the standard Windows File Manager, and prefer to use a third party one. How can I get the File Manager item on the Execute menu to start this instead of the standard one? A. You can configure what the various 'Manager' items on the Execute menu do with the Options Preferences command. Start the preferences dialog and select 'Windows Managers' from the list of option categories on the left to show the panel that handles this For each of the menu items, you can specify that PFE should run either the standard manager program supplied with Windows, or runs a command line of your choice Q. I use 4 DOS-for-NT as my Windows NT command processor instead of Microsoft's cmd. eye - how can I get the Execute DOS Prompt and associated tool bar button to start this? A. Normally, PFE will use the executable file named in the COM SPEC environment variable as the command processor.

If this variable is not set, it uses the standard defaults 'command. com' under Windows 3.1 x, and 'cmd. eye' under Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 95 and Windows 98 You can define the command processor you want to start with the Options Preferences command. Select the 'DOS Shell' panel to configure what is started by the Execute DOS Prompt command; select the 'Command Processor' panel to configure the command line used to run applications by the Execute DOS Command To Window command Q. How can I record my keyboard macros for use in other sessions? A. The macro that you record as you type on the keyboard - known as the 'active keyboard recording' - can be saved at any time with the Macro Save Recording command; PFE will automatically load it at the start of the next session. You can also build libraries of macros that you can assign to keys of your choice using the Macro Librarian command. Q. How does PFE manage to allow more than 32 K of text to be edited in an edit control? A. PFE doesn't, in fact, use standard edit controls to show text. The windows you see are ordinary MDI child windows, and the text is drawn explicitly by PFE as required. Internally, a complicated memory management system keeps track of where each line of each file is stored. Q. Why, if I have word wrap switched on for a window, will PFE wrap text only when I'm typing at the end of the line and not when I insert in the middle of it? A. The current design of PFE is set to do things that way for efficiency reasons. However, the Edit Text Reformat and Edit Text Reformat Paragraph commands allow you to reflow text to fit the current wrap margin at any time. Q. Why do I get 'Help file not found' when I ask for help? A. Make sure that you have the help file pre. help in the same directory as. eye or pre 32. eye executable program Q. Why is the default of 32 undo able actions so small?

Surely, when I'm typing text, I'll fill that up in 32 key presses? A. Actually, no - the undo system doesn't work in quite that way. It records specific actions in its stack, such as a drag-drop move of text, or a cut of the highlighted text. When you " re typing, each key press is considered as part of a single action, which is terminated only when you do something different, like moving the caret with the arrow keys, or switching to another window. Then, when you use the Undo Typing command, PFE will remove all the typing you " ve performed in that action (a future release of PFE will probably let you undo typing actions character-by-character too) You can change the number of undo actions that PFE records with the Options Preferences command. Start the preferences dialog and select 'Editing Files " from the list of option categories on the left to show the relevant panel that lets you set the size of the list Q. If I select some text and start to drag it to a new location, how can Change my mind without having to drop the text somewhere and then undo the action? A. You can cancel a drag-and-drop in one of two ways. If the highlighted text is visible in the window, move the mouse cursor somewhere inside it and release the left button.

Alternatively, press the Escape key before you release the left mouse button. Q. How can I use drag-and-drop to move text from one window to another? A. In the current design, PFE supports drag-and-drop only within a window. Inter-window operation may be added in a future release. Q. How can I configure PFE so that the File Save command and its associated tool bar button are always available? At the moment, I can only use the command when I've changed the file in some way. A. By default, PFE enables the File Save command only when the file showing ina window has altered. This gives you some feedback (complementing the 'file changed' marker in the status bar) that helps you avoid un-necessary saves. You can use the Options Preferences command to change this setting.

Start the preferences dialog and select 'Saving Files' from the list of option categories on the left to show the relevant panel. Check the box labelled 'Allow File Save on unaltered files' to make the File Save command and the toolbar button always available Q. I like the window that runs DOS commands with output capture to start full screen, and to have specific tuning details set. How can I do this? A. DOS commands with output capture are run by either the pf edos. eye (for Windows 3) or pf edos 32. eye (for Windows NT) helper modules. To change how the windows are created, set up suitable PIF files pf edos. pif and / or pf edos 32. pif in the same directory, and use the Windows PIF editor to set the details as you require Q. How do I insert a Form Feed into a file, or specify it in the Find and Replace dialog's? A. To insert a Form Feed (or any other non-typ able character) use theEditTextInsertASCIICode command, which is by default mapped to Ctrl+Q. This starts up a dialog that lets you select Esc and Ctrl+A - Ctrl+Z easily by name, or specify any ASCII code you like as a number. To specify Form Feed in the Find or Replace dialog's, write it as the two-character sequence 'f'. You can also specify end-of-line by 'n' and tab by't'; and you can specify an arbitrary code as ', where 'hh' represents two hex digits.

Remember that if you actually want a ' character, you need to write it as '". Q. Why do I see lots of files with type. (PFE version 0.05. 007 and later) in my directories? A. These are the backup files that PFE produces whenever you save a file. If a file of the same name exists already, PFE renames it with a type of. before writing the new data to disk. The Options Preferences command allows you to configure some defaults for how backup is handled. Start the preferences dialog and select 'Backup " from the list of option categories on the left to show the relevant panel.

In this dialog, you can disable all backup permanently; choose to have PFE make backup files to the same directory as the original file but with a file extension of your choice; or to make the copy into a file of the same name as the original, but in a subdirectory of the directory containing it.