Editor Commands

This section describes all editor commands provided in addition to the editor commands used for scrolling in the source (see Editor Commands for Scrolling) and summarizes commonly used editor command options. Some frequently used commands can be issued using PF keys as indicated in this section.

You enter an editor command in the command line of the editor screen.

You can enter several editor commands in the same input operation if you separate them with a semicolon (;).

Depending on the configuration of your installation, editor commands can be entered in lower case. In this section, however, all commands are shown in upper case to distinguish them as commands. For explanations of the syntax symbols used in this section, refer to System Command Syntax in the System Commands documentation.

• ADVANCE

• AORDER

• AUTOSAVE

• BNDS

• CANCEL

• CAPS

• CENTER

• CHANGE

• COLS

• CWINDOW

• DELETE

• DWINDOW

• DX, DY, DX-Y

• EMPTY

• EX, EY, EX-Y

• EXCLUDE

• EXIT

• FIND

• FLIP

• HEX

• HOME

• INCLUDE

• JLEFT

• JRIGHT

• JUSTIFY

• LABEL

• LC

• LIMIT

• LOCATE

• LOG

• MASK

• MWINDOW

• NEXT

• ORDER

• POINT

• POWER

• PROF

• PROFILE

• PROTECT

• RCHANGE

• RESET

• RFIND

• SET TYPE

• SHIFT

• SORT

• SPLIT

• SWAP

• TABS

• UC

• UNDO

• WINDOW

• X

• XSWAP

• Y

• Common Command Options

ADVANCE

This command is used to specify whether the cursor moves to the next line automatically after a line update.

The ADVANCE command issued without a parameter has the same effect as ADVANCE ON.

AORDER

This command is used to specify whether text is to be automatically justified within the set boundaries.

The AORDER command issued without a parameter has the same effect as AORDER ON. The base setting can be changed by editing your profile.

AUTOSAVE

This command is used to specify whether the editor executes an automatic SAVE command when you issue the EXIT command.

The AUTOSAVE command issued without a parameter has the same effect as AUTOSAVE ON.

BNDS

This command is used to restrict the effect of certain commands to a specific range of columns.

These boundaries apply to the editor commands FIND, CHANGE, CENTER, ORDER, JLEFT and JRIGHT, and their corresponding line commands (if available) such as TC, TO, LJ and RJ.

If n and m are omitted, the boundaries are set at the first and last column of the editing area.

You can issue the BNDS line command to see the current boundary settings.

CANCEL

Alternative PF key: PF12

This command cancels all changes made since you last saved the source (see also Saving and Cataloging Sources) and leaves the editor. Depending on your editor profile settings, you are prompted to save your changes or leave without saving (see also Exit Function).

CAPS

This command is used to switch upper-case translation on or off. This command only applies to lines which are created or modified after the command is issued.

The CAPS command issued without a parameter has the same effect as CAPS ON.

CENTER

This command is used to center text.

The CENTER command applies only within the horizontal boundaries as set with the BNDS editor command.

For centering, you can also use the line commands TC and TCC.

CHANGE

This command is used to replace a character string (string1) by another character string (string2).

If you want an apostrophe to be part of string1 or string2, you must write it as two apostrophes.

You can specify the string to be replaced (string1) as described in the following section.

This section covers the following topics:

• Using CHANGE Together with Other Commands

• Examples of the CHANGE Command

Using CHANGE Together with Other Commands

You can use the command RCHANGE to repeat the execution of a CHANGE command.

To search the entire source code for a character string and then decide occurrence by occurrence whether to replace it by another character string, you can use a combination of the commands FIND and CHANGE and the PF keys assigned to the commands RFIND and RCHANGE as described in Finding and Replacing Text.

Examples of the CHANGE Command

Example 1:

CHG 'LOW' 'HIGH'

This command replaces the first occurrence of LOW by HIGH, regardless of upper or lower case.

Example 2:

CHG C'OPS' 'SPF' .X .Y 28 32 ALL

This command changes OPS (exactly as entered here) into SPF; it changes all occurrences in the block of lines labeled with .X and .Y and between columns 28 and 32.

Example 3:

CHG C'NAME' 'APPL' .X .Y ALL PREFIX NX

This command changes all occurrences of a string that begins with NAME (exactly as entered here) into APPL in all displayed lines in the block of lines labeled with .X and .Y.

Example 4:

CHG * 'NEW'

This command replaces the next occurrence of the string specified in the last CHANGE command by the string NEW.

Example 5:

CHG 'OLD' *

This command replaces the next occurrence of the string OLD by the same new string as specified in the last CHANGE command.

COLS

This command displays a line at the top of the editing area showing column positions.

You can also use the line command COLS to display the column positions.

CWINDOW

This command is used to copy a data window according to the command parameters.

See also Copying and Moving Text with a Data Window.

DELETE

This command is used to delete lines.

You can specify that only lines which contain a specified character string are to be deleted as described in the following section.

If you enter the DELETE command without any parameters, the current line is deleted.

You can also use the line command D, Dn or DD to delete lines.

Example 1:

DEL C'NAME' 1 20 ALL PREFIX NX

This command deletes all lines that contain the string NAME (in upper case exactly as entered here) as a prefix to a word in all lines not excluded from display if NAME occurs between columns 1 and 20.

Example 2:

DEL C'Abc' .X .Y 10 30 ALL

This command deletes all lines that contain the string Abc (exactly as entered here) between columns 10 and 30 within the block of lines labeled with .X and .Y

DWINDOW

This command is used to delete the last defined data window.

DX, DY, DX-Y

These commands are used to delete marked lines.

• The DX command deletes the line marked with the .X label.

• The DY command deletes the line marked with the .Y label.

• The DX-Y command deletes all lines between the .X and .Y labels.

EMPTY

This command controls the deletion of blank lines.

The EMPTY command issued without a parameter has the same effect as EMPTY ON.

EX, EY, EX-Y

These commands are used to delete lines in a source.

• The EX command deletes all lines preceding the line marked with the .X label.

• The EY command deletes all lines following the line marked with the .Y label.

• The EX-Y command deletes all lines preceding the .X label and following the .Y label.

EXCLUDE

This command is used to exclude lines from being displayed.

You can specify that only lines which contain a specified character string are to be excluded from display as described in the following section.

If you enter the EXCLUDE command without any parameters, the current line is excluded from display.

You can use the INCLUDE editor command to re-display excluded lines.

Example 1:

EXCLUDE .X .Y

This command excludes lines from the line labeled with .X to the line labeled with .Y.

Example 2:

EXCLUDE C'NAME' ALL PREFIX

This command excludes from display all lines which contain strings that begin with NAME (in upper case as entered here).

EXIT

Alternative PF key: PF3

This command is used to leave the editor. If any changes have been made since you last saved the source (see also Saving and Cataloging Sources), you are prompted to save your changes or leave without saving, depending on your editor profile settings (see also Exit Function).

Note:
If AUTOSAVE is set to ON, you will not be prompted before exiting the session; your changes will then be saved automatically.

FIND

This command is used to search for a specific character string. The cursor is placed at the beginning of the first string found. If the line containing the string was excluded from display, it is displayed when found.

If you want an apostrophe to be part of the string, you must write it as two apostrophes.

You can specify the string as described in the following section.

Example 1:

F C'NAME' .X .Y ALL PREFIX X

This command searches for any occurrence of NAME exactly as entered here as a prefix of a word in any excluded line within the block of lines labeled with .X and .Y.

Example 2:

F C'HILITE' X PREV

This command searches for the previous occurrence of HILITE exactly as entered here in any excluded line.

You can use the RFIND command to repeat the execution of a FIND command.

Example 3:

F P'RCV#' .X .Z 20 30

This command searches for any 4-character string that begins with RCV and whose fourth character is numeric. It searches within the block of lines labeled with .X and .Z and between columns 20 to 30.

Example 4:

F X'6C' SUFFIX NX

This command searches for the character with hexadecimal representation 6C. Only those occurrences of the character that are at the end of word are found. The search is valid for non-excluded lines only.

Example 5:

F '''w'

This command searches for the following character string: 'w

Example 6:

F 'r''w'

This command searches for the following character string: r'w

Example 7:

F ''''

This command searches for an apostrophe (').

FLIP

This command is used to toggle the PF-key display between PF1 to PF12 and PF13 to PF24.

HEX

This command is used to switch hexadecimal display mode on or off.

HOME

This command returns the cursor to the command field after the next ENTER.

INCLUDE

This command is used to re-display lines that were excluded from display by an EXCLUDE command. The command takes the same parameters as the EXCLUDE command.

If you enter the INCLUDE command without any parameters, it includes the first line of an excluded block of lines.

JLEFT

This command is used to align text left-justified.

The JLEFT command applies only within the horizontal boundaries as set with the BNDS command.

For left justification, you can also use the line commands LJ and LJJ.

See also the JRIGHT command.

Example:

BNDS 10;JLEFT 15 20

The text between column 10 and the rightmost column of your screen in lines 15 to 20 is left-aligned to column 10.

JRIGHT

This command is used to align text right-justified.

The JRIGHT command applies only within the horizontal boundaries as set with the BNDS command.

For right justification, you can also use the line commands RJ and RJJ.

See also the JLEFT command.

Example 1:

BNDS 4 40;JRIGHT 6 18

The text between columns 4 to 40 in lines 6 to 18 is right-aligned to column 40.

Example 2:

BNDS 10;JRIGHT 15

The text to the right of column 10 from line 15 to the last line is right-aligned to the rightmost column of your editing screen.

JUSTIFY

This command is used to set the justification mode for the line commands TO and TOO.

TO and TOO are used to join source lines with subsequent lines. Both commands apply only within the horizontal boundaries as set with the BNDS command.

Example:

You set the horizontal boundaries to columns 10 and 60 and activate left justification with the following command:

BNDS 10 60;JUSTIFY LEFT

When you then mark a line with a TO line command (or a block of lines with two TOO line commands), the text between columns 10 and 60 in the marked line(s) is left-aligned to column 10.

LABEL

This command is used to mark the current line (that is, the line which is currently at the top of the editing area) with the specified label.

The label is a string of 1 to 4 alphanumerical characters.

Example:

Use the following command to label the current line with .X:

LABEL .X

You can also mark a block of lines with two labels. For example, to mark a block with labels .X and .Y, you first mark the current line (assuming it is the first line of the block to be marked) with .X as shown in the example above; then you scroll until the last line of the block is the current line; then you issue the LABEL .Y command to mark that line with .Y.

You can also use the .label line command to mark a line with a label.

LC

This command is used to change one or more lines to lower case.

You can specify that only lines which contain a specified character string are to be changed to lower case. If you want an apostrophe to be part of the string, you must write it as two apostrophes.

You can specify the string as described in the following section.

If you enter the LC command without any parameters, the current line is changed to lower case.

Example:

LC C'NAME' .X .Y ALL PREFIX NX

This command changes to lower case all displayed lines within the block of lines labeled with .X and .Y if they contain the string NAME (in upper case as entered here) as prefix to a word.

LIMIT

With this command, you specify the maximum number of lines to be searched with a FIND or RFIND command. The parameter n is the number of lines to be searched.

LOCATE

This command is used to scroll a specific line to the top of the editing area (that is, make it the current line).

The command provides the following options:

Examples:

LOC 32

Places line number 32 at the top of the editing area.

32

Same as above.

LOC .X

Places the line labeled with .X at the top of the editing area.

LOG

This command activates or deactivates the internal log file.

The log file is a history of all modifications made in the editor since session begin. When the log file is active, each time you press ENTER, the changes made since the previous ENTER are recorded in the log file. When using the UNDO command, you can consecutively back out changes made since the beginning of the editor session.

Important:
All entries in the log file are cleared when you clear the source work area or read in the source of another Natural object, or when you terminate the program editor session.

MASK

This command activates or deactivates the mask function. When the mask function is active, each time you insert a line in the editor, a predefined line of text is entered instead of a blank line. The mask line is defined using the MASK line command, described in the following paragraph. The mask function is useful when you must write several lines of code which are identical or very similar.

To define and use a mask line

1. Enter the MASK line command in any source line and press ENTER.

   A blank line indicated by =mask> appears above the line in which you entered the command.

2. In the blank line, type in the text you want to define as a mask line and press ENTER.

   The mask line is now available for the current source until you update the mask with a new mask line or until you deactivate the mask function.

3. Enter the MASK ON editor command.

   The mask function is activated. The defined mask line now appears in all lines added through a line insert operation.

4. Enter an insert line command, for example: I2

   Two new lines are inserted into the source with the text of the mask line. The text of a mask line appears in all lines added with an insert command.

5. Modify the text in the new lines. If you do not modify the text, any inserted line is deleted the next time you press ENTER.

The MASK OFF command deactivates the mask function but does not delete the contents of the mask line.

MWINDOW

This command is used to move a data window according to the command parameters.

See also Copying and Moving Text with a Data Window.

NEXT

This command is used to display the next parallel editing session, assuming two or more editing sessions are running concurrently and if the profile parameter EDTRB (see the Parameter Reference documentation) is set. The following command parameters are optional:

ORDER

This command is used to join source lines.

The ORDER command applies only within the horizontal boundaries as set with the BNDS command.

Within the set boundaries, the lines are concatenated and are filled to the greatest possible extent; words that do not fit into one line are automatically placed in the next line.

To join source lines, you can also use the line commands TF, TO and TOO.

POINT

This command places the line marked by the line command NZ at the top of the editing area.

POWER

This command switches the editor to insert mode. You are presented with a blank screen into which you can enter one or more lines of text. After entry, press ENTER and the text is inserted into the first line of the editing area.

PROF

This command displays your editor profile at the top of the editor screen.

With n you specify additional lines to be displayed. Possible values for n are:

PROFILE

This command invokes the editor profile facility. It enables you to modify your editor defaults for current and future sessions. The editor profile facility is described in more detail in section Modifying Profile Settings for Permanent Use.

PROTECT

This command is used to protect the prefix area.

RCHANGE

This command repeats the last CHANGE command.

RESET

This command resets all pending editor and line commands and deletes all line labels.

RFIND

Alternative PF key: PF5

This command repeats the last FIND command.

SET TYPE

This command changes the type of the object currently in the source work area.

SHIFT

This command shifts a block of lines between the .X and .Y labels to the right or left by n columns (or up to the last non-blank character). The default shift is five columns to the right.

SORT

The SORT command sorts lines in the editor in ascending or descending ª order. If you enter SORT without any parameters, the command sorts all text in the object in ascending order.

SPLIT

This command sets split-screen mode and displays the source of another object on the editor screen.

With PROGRAM or VIEW, an asterisk (*) can be used for object-name to display a list of all available objects. If the an asterisk (*) is preceded by one or more characters, only those objects whose names begin with these characters are displayed.

For an example of using SPLIT, see To display and copy definitions with SPLIT.

SWAP

The SWAP command toggles between two objects in split-screen mode (see the relevant section). During this operation, the cursor switches from one object to the other.

TABS

This command is used to control tabulator settings.

You can enable or disable logical or physical tabulation using the command TABS ON or TABS OFF. Tabulation is also enabled by any command that changes a tabulation setting.

For example, the following command enables logical tabulation with the ampersand sign (&) as the logical tabulation character:

TABS &

You set tab positions using the TABS command. For example, the following command sets tabs in columns 10, 20 and 30:

TABS 10 20 30

You can enter text and automatically move it to a specific tab position by preceding it with a logical tabulation character. One tabulation character moves the text to the next tab position, two tabulation characters move the text to the second tab position, and so on.

To display the current TABS command settings, issue the PROF command.

To display the current tab positions, issue the TABS line command.

Apart from tab positions, you can specify the following parameters with the TABS command:

Multiple tab characters are possible to tabulate text in a specific column: issue the TABS line command and type over each asterisk (*) marking the tab positions with another special character. Any input preceded by any of these special characters is tabulated in the corresponding column. You can type an L (for LEFT), an R (for RIGHT) or a D (for DECIMAL) after each tabulation character to specify placement of the text for the tab position.

In the following examples of tabulation, the ampersand (&) is assumed to be the tabulation character; the COLS line command has been issued to display column positions.

• Example 1 - Tab Positions

• Example 2 - TABS RIGHT

• Example 3 - TABS DECIMAL

• Example 4 - Mixed Justification

• Example 5 - Multiple Tab Symbols

• Example 6 - Using a Blank as Tabulation Symbol

Example 1 - Tab Positions

The command:

TABS 10 20 40 LEFT

activates logical tabs with tabulation columns 10, 20, and 40 with left justification. After you press ENTER, the input text line

&abc &def &ghi

is displayed as follows:

=cols> ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6 
                abc       def                 ghi

Example 2 - TABS RIGHT

The command

TABS RIGHT

activates logical tabs with right justification. After you press ENTER, the input text line

&abc &def &ghi

is displayed as follows:

=cols> ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6 
              abc       def                 ghi

Example 3 - TABS DECIMAL

The command

TABS DECIMAL

activates logical tabs with justification of the decimal point in the tab position. After you press ENTER, the input text line

&15.27$ &16.3 EUR &13 IS

is displayed as follows:

=cols> ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6 
              15.27$    16.3 EUR             13 IS

Example 4 - Mixed Justification

Issue the following command:

TABS 10 20 30 40 50

Then issue the TABS line command. This displays the current tab positions as follows:

=tabs>          *         *         *         *         *  

Type an L, R or D next to each tab position as required (unmarked tab positions assume the value of the last TAB command):

=tabs>          *R        *D        *D        *D        *L 

After you press ENTER, the input text line

&start &0.01 &0.02 &0.03 &end

is displayed as follows:

=cols> ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6 
            start        0.01      0.02      0.03       end

Example 5 - Multiple Tab Symbols

Replace the asterisks in the =tabs> line by other special characters and specify left justification for each one as follows:

=tabs>           ]L        &L       #L       $L        =L       

After you press ENTER, the input text line

=first$second#third&fourth]fifth

is displayed as follows:

=cols> ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6 
                                                        first 
                                              second 
                                    third 
                          fourth 
                fifth

Example 6 - Using a Blank as Tabulation Symbol

Issue the command

TABS ' '

which activates tabulation with one blank as the tabulation character. This means that words separated by one blank are tabulated. After you press ENTER, the input text line

this is a blank tabulation

is displayed as follows:

=cols> ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6 
                this      is        a         blank     tabulation

UC

The UC command converts one or more lines to upper case. It uses the same parameters as the LC command. If you enter the UC command without parameters, it changes the current line to upper case.

UNDO

Alternative PF key: PF11

If the log file is active (see the LOG command), the UNDO command backs out all changes made since the last time you pressed ENTER. Repeated use of the UNDO command backs out consecutive changes in reverse order. You can thus back out all changes one by one until you restore the member to its original status at session begin.

Important:
All entries in the log file are cleared when you clear the source work area or read in the source of another Natural object, or when you terminate the program editor session.

You can specify the following parameters with the UNDO command:

WINDOW

This command is used to define a data window to be copied or moved. The starting line and column and the end line and column of the window are specified in the command parameters. At least line1 and line2 are required.

See also Copying and Moving Text with a Data Window.

X

This command places the line marked by the line command .X at the top of the editing area.

XSWAP

This command is used to exchange displayed lines with excluded lines. Lines are excluded using the EXCLUDE command.

Y

This command places the line marked by the line command .Y at the top of the editing area.

Common Command Options

There are some options which are available with several editor commands. These options are described in the following section.

• Line Specifications

• Column Specifications

• Displayed or Non-Displayed Lines

• Direction of Operation

• Special Occurrences

Line Specifications

The following options can be used to restrict the effect of an editor command to a line or a block of lines labeled with the .X and .Y line commands:

Note:
.X and .Y can also be any label of 1 to 4 alphabetic characters (see also the LABEL editor command and the .label line command).

Column Specifications

The following options can be used to restrict the effect of an editor command to a certain range of columns. The column numbers refer to the actual source-code columns; the line numbers preceding the source code are not counted. So, if you specify column 1 with a command, this may physically be the 8th column of your screen, but it is in fact the 1st column of the source code you are editing.

Displayed or Non-Displayed Lines

The following options can be used to specify that only excluded or only included lines are to be affected by an editor command:

Direction of Operation

The following options can be used to specify the direction in which an editor command is to operate:

Special Occurrences

The following options can be used to specify whether only special occurrences of the specified string are to be affected by an editor command: