Evaluating the Emulator

Started by Gene Wirchenko, May 11, 2005, 10:05:45 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Gene Wirchenko

     I have WordStar 2000 running on my system at home.   Formerly, I was working at home.  WordStar is a very good editor for a programmer.

    When I was transferred, I now had an office computer to bring up WordStar on.  I thought that that would be easy.  I had done it before.  It was not.  Others have posted of their troubles.  I had the same.

    I went hunting for a WordStar compatible.  There are a lot of WordStar combatables--not a typo--out there.  Yes, so many programs claim to be WordStar-compatible, but I have not found one yet that worked right.

    I use WordStar 2000 now, but would be quite happy with the classic WordStar commands.  I used them for years.

    The power of WordStar is that some things that I commonly do are very easy in WordStar.  The same are rather more difficult, if possible at all, in Word et al.  Mr. Sawyer has his reasons for liking WordStar; I have mine.  We probably differ in the details, but not in the main: WordStar fits the writer--and a programmer is a writer--not the other way around.

    Given the above, I am pleased to see that there is an emulator, but I am VERY concerned about how well it works for me.  So many of the combatables do have the basic diamond.  Some have a bit more.  Where most fail is in the other features.

    How search and search-and-replace work are EXTREMELY critical for me.  As an example, one combatable has a case-sensitive search with no way to specify case insensitivity.  This led to a bug in one of my programming changes, because search did not find one of the needed areas to change.  The same program also substituted tabs for sequences of spaces which resulted in another program not displaying right.

    I can not check the functionality of search and search-and-replace on the emulator, because these functions are not enabled on the evaluation version.  The cursor movement plus search and search-and-replace have to work right, or the emulator is of little to no use for me.  If they work right, I would happily buy the emulator for those functions alone.  If they do not, I do not care to waste--term used advisedly--$34.99.

    Help!

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

PGAGA

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Try WriteandSet which began life as a WS key mapped programmer's editor.  It even does blocks.

Phil

Gene Wirchenko

Quote from: PGAGA on May 12, 2005, 12:37:13 AM
Try WriteandSet which began life as a WS key mapped programmer's editor.  It even does blocks.

    Thanks, but I think that that was one of the ones that I tried.  I do not recall it specifically, but as I am still looking, I have not found what I want yet.

    If I wanted a lousy editor, I would have no problem finding one.  ::)

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Forum Admin

Hi Gene,

The emulator uses Word's built-in search function, but activated using WordStar commands. You'll have case sensitive/ignore-case options available as you choose from the find/replace More [options] button.

If you look at Word's find and replace features, you'll see what the emulator does.
Forum Administrator
WordStar Resource Site

Join the WordStar mail list at Yahoo Groups

Gene Wirchenko

Quote from: Forum Admin on May 12, 2005, 05:50:15 PM
The emulator uses Word's built-in search function, but activated using WordStar commands. You'll have case sensitive/ignore-case options available as you choose from the find/replace More [options] button.

If you look at Word's find and replace features, you'll see what the emulator does.

    Uh, no.  Following is a common idiom that I use in WordStar.  It is for deleting a method that is no longer needed.  It is not clear to me that I would be able to use it using the emulator, and I consider it critical.

         1) Possibly, position to the beginning of the file.

         2) Search for "procedure x" where "x" is the name of the method.

         3) Cursor up to the beginning of the header comments.

         4) Set the beginning of block marker.

         5) Search for "endproc".

         6) Cursor down to the beginning of the header comments for the following method.

         7) Set the end of block marker.

         Eight) Delete the block.

    This can not be done in this form in Word, due to being unable to do a search while selecting text.  It is very important that I be able to do this this way.  The Word way is too error-prone.  Scanning the code as I page down selecting text is prone to me missing the "endproc" and deleting more methods than intended.

    If I can not do this the right (according to me) way, the emulator is not worth bothering with.

    I hate WordStar-combatables.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Forum Admin

In Word:

  • CTRL+F (find) then enter the procedure name. If you want case sensitive, select the More button and check the Match Case option.
  • ESC (close the find dialog)
  • Move the cursor to the start of your block
  • F8[CTRL+F and enter the end point you want.[ESC]Reposition the cursor to the end of what you really want to delete.
  • DEL, CTRL+C, CTRL+X, or any other command you want to apply to the now highlighted block.
  • If the block isn't right, press ESC again to cancel the EXTend Selection function.
In Word with the Emulator running:

  • CTRL+Q,F (find) and type what you're looking for
  • ESC (close the find dialog)
  • Reposition the cursor using WordStar commands or the arrow keys.
  • CTRL+K,B
  • CTRL+Q,F and type your end point search string.
  • ESC
  • Reposition the cursor to the end point you want.
  • CTRL+K,K to mark the block, it will momentarily highlight.
  • Do anything else you want to.
  • When you want to delete the block, CTRL+K,Y.
The WordStar copy, move, delete, copy to Windows Clipboard, and write to file commands will also work until such time as you remove either of the block markers. The block doesn't stay highlighted, but the selection can be redisplayed by toggling the show/hide block markers command.

I think it will do what you want it to do. I suggest tht you have a read through the on-line FAQ page.

Regards
Mike
Forum Administrator
WordStar Resource Site

Join the WordStar mail list at Yahoo Groups

Gene Wirchenko

Quote from: Forum Admin on May 14, 2005, 02:26:21 PM
In Word:

    [*]CTRL+F (find) then enter the procedure name. If you want case sensitive, select the More button and check the Match Case option.[*]ESC (close the find dialog)[*]Move the cursor to the start of your block[*]F8[CTRL+F and enter the end point you want.[ESC]Reposition the cursor to the end of what you really want to delete.[*]DEL, CTRL+C, CTRL+X, or any other command you want to apply to the now highlighted block.[*]If the block isn't right, press ESC again to cancel the EXTend Selection function.[/list]

        I did not know about the extend select function.  It is still not as good as WordStar, but is reasonable.

    [snip]

    Quote
    I think it will do what you want it to do. I suggest tht you have a read through the on-line FAQ page.

        I already did.

    Sincerely,

    Gene Wirchenko