Qedit Full-Screen Editor

Qedit is one of the text editors available to programmers using HP systems. The first version was released in 1977. The goals in developing Qedit were to provide the maximum power for programming, with the least complex user interface possible, and with tiny system load. Since 1977, Robelle has produced 34 Qedit updates, each one adding new features suggested by our users, features such as COBOL change tags, full-screen editing, user commands, text justify, LaserJet support, porting to HP-UX, Redo stack, unlimited Undo, and many more. Qedit is now more like a shell than like a simple editor. It accepts system commands, including command files or shell scripts, as easily as its own editing commands. The basic goals, however, remain the same. Qedit aims to increase productivity and reduce system load by providing the precise functions a programmer needs and eliminating irritating, redundant, and time-consuming steps (such as saving your file to disc and exiting the editor in order to compile it, then having to re-enter the editor and re-load the file in order to fix the compile errors).

Qedit for Windows

In 1997, Robelle introduced Qedit for Windows, a client-server editor with Qedit running on as the server and a new Windows- style editor running as the client. Using this model, Qedit for Windows maintains a low-overhead (by not having to download an entire file before editing it) while giving users the convenience of editing HP3000, HP-UX, and PC files from a single editor.

Full-screen Editing

For HP terminals, Qedit is a screen editor with a line-command window as well as a line-mode interface. This makes it easy to switch between making source changes and testing programs. In Visual mode you move around the screen using the cursor keys, edit text using the Delete key, Insert Char, Delete Line, Insert Line, and so on. You update your page by pressing the Enter key and move around your file using the function keys (for example, F4=next string, F6=next page). When you are ready to compile, you type the compile command in the home line and press F7.

Cut-and-paste functions are done as in Xedit, by putting indicators at the left of the screen: for example, put CC on the first and last lines to be copied, then put A on the destination line to copy to the following line, the line "after."

For VT terminals, Screen mode differs from Visual mode by not relying on the block-mode feature of HP terminals. It enables you to page forward and backward through your file, as well as to move, copy, mark and delete blocks of text with Screen mode's cut-and-paste functions.

By default you start in Line mode and switch into Visual or Screen mode by pressing the F1 key. However, you can change the startup default mode by running Qedit a special way:

    qedit "-cvisual"

The Qedit user manual is also available online.

Robelle's web site also contains an area for Qedit Support.

String Search Made Easy

The same word often occurs in both upper case, lower case and mixed case in the same file: BOB, bob, Bob. To list all such variables, use the Upshift option, as in list "bob"(u). Qedit handles embedded words too (that is, bob in bobbin). Use the Smart option to skip over them, as in list "bob"(s).

One of the forgotten features of Qedit commands is their ability to use strings as a rangelist. If you need to modify some lines containing a string, you can do modify \string\. You can use strings in any command that accepts a range of line numbers, and you can further qualify strings if you use window options. Here are some instances where this feature is useful:

Deleting all lines with the string "superfluous."

    delete "superfluous"

Deleting all lines without the string "superfluous."

    delete "superfluous"(nomatch)

Change "bug" to "undocumented feature", but only on those lines that have the string "unexplained."

    change "bug"undocumented feature" "unexplained"

Delete all blank lines.

    delete "~" (pattern)

Find the next occurrence of the string ".font" starting in column 1.

    find ".font" (1/5)

List all occurrences of "Frank," but not in words such as "Frankenstein."

    list "Frank" (smart)

For more of "Qedit's Forgotten Commands", download Hans Hendriks' tutorial on this topic from the Robelle web server.

Looking at Files

   list /usr/local/WWW/welcome.html
   list $ 1/100      {first 100 lines of same file}
   list $ last-100/  {last 100 lines of same file}
   list $ "<strong"  {string search on same file}

   list $pcl 1 $device LASER2

If you want to see the contents of the Undo history stack, you can enter Listundo. The commands are displayed in reverse order, that is, starting with the most recent command. It displays each command, the number of lines affected and the text lines. Few programs on the HP 3000 have an Undo command. Many microcomputer programs do include an Undo command but usually it works only on the most recent operation.

List $PCL Codes in Qedit

The $PCL codes are arbitrarily numbered 1 to 11, with modifiers. To select a font using only the ASCII character set, instead of HP's default Roman-8 character set, add 1000 to the $PCL code. To use A4-size paper, add 2000. To use A4-paper and select ASCII, add 3000.

Text version

			A4 paper		Letter-size
PCL	L/P	Font	Rows	Columns	Rows	Columns	Notes
1	L	lp	58	188	60	175
2	L	courier	43	110	45	100
3	P	courier	64	77	60	80	"standard"
4	P	lp	85	128	80	132
5	P	courier	64	80	60	80	A4-squeeze
6	L	lp	60	223	60	223	legal-size (note 2)
10	L	lp	58	95	60	87	two columns
11	L	lp	60	110	60	110	2-up legal (note 2)

Note 1: "L/P" means "Landscape or Portrait" orientation.

Note 2: 6 and 11 assume US legal paper, but you may like how 2006 and 2011 look on A4.

You can set a default $PCL code for all listings or for just the current List command.

Text version

/set list pcl 10	{two-up listing will be the default}
/list $pcl 3003 $lp	{Std, Ascii char only, A4-size paper}

Qedit is a trademark of Robelle Solutions Technology Inc.