1JOE(1)                      General Commands Manual                     JOE(1)
2
3
4

Name

6       joe - Joe's Own Editor
7

Syntax

9       joe [global-options] [ [local-options] filename ]...
10
11       jstar [global-options] [ [local-options] filename ]...
12
13       jmacs [global-options] [ [local-options] filename ]...
14
15       rjoe [global-options] [ [local-options] filename ]...
16
17       jpico [global-options] [ [local-options] filename ]...
18

Description

20       JOE  is a powerful ASCII-text screen editor.  It has a "mode-less" user
21       interface which is similar to many user-friendly PC editors.  Users  of
22       Micro-Pro's  WordStar or Borland's "Turbo" languages will feel at home.
23       JOE is a full featured UNIX screen-editor though, and has many features
24       for editing programs and text.
25
26       JOE also emulates several other editors.  JSTAR is a close imitation of
27       WordStar with many "JOE" extensions.  JPICO is a close imitation of the
28       Pine  mailing  system's  PICO  editor,  but  with  many  extensions and
29       improvements.  JMACS is a GNU-EMACS imitation.  RJOE  is  a  restricted
30       version  of  JOE,  which allows you to edit only the files specified on
31       the command line.
32
33       Although JOE is actually five different editors, it still requires only
34       one  executable,  but  one  with five different names.  The name of the
35       editor with an "rc" appended gives the  name  of  JOE's  initialization
36       file, which determines the personality of the editor.
37
38       JOE is free software;  you can distribute it and/or modify it under the
39       terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free  Soft‐
40       ware  Foundation.  I have no plans for turning JOE into a commercial or
41       share-ware  product.   JOE  is  available  over   the   Internet   from
42       www.sourceforge.net/projects/joe-editor.
43
44

Usage

46       To  start  the editor, type joe followed by zero or more names of files
47       you want to edit.  Each file name may be preceded  by  a  local  option
48       setting  (see  the  local  options  table which follows).  Other global
49       options, which apply to the editor as a whole, may also  be  placed  on
50       the  command line (see the global options table which follows).  If you
51       are editing a new file, you can either give the name of  the  new  file
52       when  you  invoke  the  editor,  or in the editor when you save the new
53       file.  A modified syntax for file names is provided  to  allow  you  to
54       edit  program  output,  standard  input/output, or sections of files or
55       devices.  See the section Filenames below for details.
56
57       Once you are in the editor, you can type in text and use  special  con‐
58       trol-character  sequences  to perform other editing tasks.  To find out
59       what the control-character sequences are, read the  rest  of  this  man
60       page or type ^K H for help in the editor.
61
62       Now for some obscure computer-lore:
63
64       The  ^ means that you hold down the Control key while pressing the fol‐
65       lowing key (the same way the Shift key works for uppercase letters).  A
66       number  of  control-key sequences are duplicated on other keys, so that
67       you don't need to press the control key: ESC will work in place of  ^[,
68       Del  will  work in place of ^?, Backspace will work in place of ^H, Tab
69       will work in place of ^I, Return or Enter will work in place of ^M  and
70       Linefeed will work in place of ^J.  Some keyboards may give you trouble
71       with some control keys.  ^_, ^^ and ^@ can usually be  entered  without
72       pressing shift (I.E., try ^-, ^6 and ^2).  Other keyboards may reassign
73       these to other keys.  Try: ^., ^, and ^/.  ^SPACE can usually  be  used
74       in  place  of ^@.  ^\ and ^] are interpreted by many communication pro‐
75       grams, including telnet and kermit.  Usually you just hit the key twice
76       to get it to pass through the communication program.
77
78       Once  you  have typed ^K H, the first help window appears at the top of
79       the screen.  You can continue to enter and edit  text  while  the  help
80       window  is on.  To page through other topics, hit ^[, and ^[. (that is,
81       ESC , and ESC .).  Use ^K H to dismiss the help window.
82
83       You can customize the keyboard layout, the help screens and a number of
84       behavior   defaults  by  copying  JOE's  initialization  file  (usually
85       /etc/joe/joerc) to .joerc in your home directory and then by  modifying
86       it.  See the section joerc below.
87
88       To  have  JOE used as your default editor for e-mail and News, you need
89       to set the EDITOR and VISUAL environment variables in your  shell  ini‐
90       tialization  file  (.cshrc  or  .profile)  to refer to JOE (joe usually
91       resides as /usr/bin/joe).
92
93       There are a number of other obscure  invocation  parameters  which  may
94       have to be set, particularly if your terminal screen is not updating as
95       you think it should.  See the section Environment variables below.
96
97

Command Line Options

99       The following global options may be specified on the command line:
100
101
102       -asis  Characters with codes above 127 will be sent to the terminal as-
103              is,  instead  of as inverse of the corresponding character below
104              128.  If this does not work, check your terminal server.
105
106
107       -backpath path
108              If this option is given, backup files  will  be  stored  in  the
109              specified  directory  instead  of in each file's original direc‐
110              tory.
111
112
113       -baud nnn
114              Set the baud rate for the purposes of terminal screen  optimiza‐
115              tion.   Joe  inserts  delays  for  baud rates below 19200, which
116              bypasses tty buffering so  that  typeahead  will  interrupt  the
117              screen  output.   Scrolling  commands will not be used for 38400
118              baud.  This is useful for X-terms and other console  ttys  which
119              really aren't going over a serial line.
120
121
122       -beep  Joe  will  beep  on command errors and when the cursor goes past
123              extremes.
124
125
126       -columns nnn
127              Sets the number of screen columns.
128
129
130       -csmode
131              Continued search mode: a search immediately following  a  search
132              will  repeat  the  previous  search instead of prompting for new
133              string.  This is useful for the the ^[S and ^[R commands and for
134              when joe is trying to be emacs.
135
136
137       -dopadding
138              Joe  usually  assumes  that  there  is some kind of flow control
139              between it and the tty.  If there isn't, this option  will  make
140              joe  output  extra  ^@s  to  the tty as specified by the termcap
141              entry.  The extra ^@s allow the terminal to catch up after  long
142              terminal commands.
143
144
145       -exask This  option  makes  ^KX verify the file name that it's about to
146              write.
147
148
149       -force This option makes sure that the last line  of  the  file  has  a
150              line-feed which it's saved.
151
152
153       -help  The  editor will start with the help screen on if this option is
154              given.
155
156
157       -keepup
158              Normally the column number and control-key prefix fields of  the
159              status  lines  are  on a one second delay to reduce CPU consump‐
160              tion, but with this option they  are  updated  after  each  key-
161              stroke.
162
163
164       -lightoff
165              The  block  highlighting will go away after any block command if
166              this option is given.
167
168
169       -lines nnn
170              Sets the number of screen lines.
171
172
173       -marking
174              Text between  ^KB  and  the  cursor  is  highlighted  (use  with
175              -lightoff  and  a  modified joerc file to have drop-anchor style
176              block selection).
177
178
179       -mid   If this option is set and the cursor moves off the  window,  the
180              window  will  be  scrolled  so that the cursor is in the center.
181              This option  is  forced  on  slow  terminals  which  don't  have
182              scrolling commands.
183
184
185       -nobackups
186              This option prevents backup files.
187
188
189       -nonotice
190              This  option  prevent  the copyright notice from being displayed
191              when the editor starts.
192
193
194       -nosta This option eliminates the top-most status line.  It's nice  for
195              when  you  only want to see your text on the screen or if you're
196              using a vt52.
197
198
199       -noxon Attempt to turn off ^S/^Q processing.  This is useful  for  when
200              joe is trying to be WordStar or EMACS.
201
202
203       -orphan
204              When this option is active, extra files on the command line will
205              be placed in orphaned buffers instead of in extra windows.  This
206              is useful for when joe is trying to be emacs.
207
208
209       -pg nnn
210              This  specifies  the  number  of  lines  to keep after PgUp/PgDn
211              (^U/^V).  If -1 is given, half the window is kept.
212
213
214       -skiptop nnn
215              Don't use the top nnn lines of the screen.  Useful for when  joe
216              is used as a BBS editor.
217
218
219       Each  of  these options may be specified in the joerc file as well.  In
220       addition, the NOXON, BAUD, LINES, COLUMNS and DOPADDING options may  be
221       specified with environment variables.
222
223       The  JOETERM  environment  variable  may be set to override the regular
224       TERM environment variable for specifying your terminal type.
225
226       The following options may be specified before each filename on the com‐
227       mand line:
228
229
230       +nnn   The cursor starts on the specified line.
231
232
233       -crlf  Joe  uses  CR-LF as the end of line sequence instead of just LF.
234              This is for editing MS-DOS or VMS files.
235
236
237       -wordwrap
238              Joe wraps the previous word when you type past the right margin.
239
240
241       -autoindent
242              When you hit Return on an  indented  line,  the  indentation  is
243              duplicated onto the new line.
244
245
246       -overwrite
247              Typing  overwrites  existing  characters  instead  of  inserting
248              before them.
249
250
251       -lmargin nnn
252              Sets the left margin.
253
254
255       -rmargin nnn
256              Sets the right margin.
257
258
259       -tab nnn
260              Sets the tab width.
261
262
263       -indentc nnn
264              Sets the indentation character for ^K, and ^K. (32 for SPACE,  9
265              for TAB).
266
267
268       -istep nnn
269              Sets the indentation step for ^K, and ^K..
270
271
272       -linums
273              Line numbers are displayed before each line.
274
275
276       -rdonly
277              The file is read only.
278
279
280       -keymap name
281              Use  an alternate section of the joerc file for the key sequence
282              bindings.
283
284
285       These options can also be specified in the joerc file.  They can be set
286       depending  on  the  file-name extension.  Programs (.c, .h or .p exten‐
287       sion) usually have autoindent enabled.  Wordwrap is  enabled  on  other
288       files, but rc files have it disabled.
289
290

Editing Tasks

292   Basic Editing
293       When  you  type  characters into the editor, they are normally inserted
294       into the file being edited (or appended to the file if the cursor is at
295       the end of the file).  This is the normal operating mode of the editor.
296       If you want to replace some existing text, you have to delete  the  old
297       text  before  or after you type in the replacement text.  The Backspace
298       key can be used for deleting text: move the cursor to right  after  the
299       text you want to delete and hit Backspace a number of times.
300
301       Hit  the  Enter  or Return key to insert a line-break.  For example, if
302       the cursor was in the middle of a line and you  hit  Return,  the  line
303       would  be  split into two lines with the cursor appearing at the begin‐
304       ning of the second line.  Hit Backspace at the beginning of a  line  to
305       eliminate a line-break.
306
307       Use  the  arrow keys to move around the file.  If your keyboard doesn't
308       have arrow keys (or if they don't work for some reason), use ^F to move
309       forwards (right), ^B to move backwards (left), ^P to move to the previ‐
310       ous line (up), and ^N to move to the next line (down).  The  right  and
311       left  arrow  keys  simply move forwards or backwards one character at a
312       time through the text: if you're at the beginning of  a  line  and  you
313       press left-arrow, you will end up at the end of the previous line.  The
314       up and down arrow keys move forwards and backwards by enough characters
315       so  that  the  cursor  appears in the same column that it was in on the
316       original line.
317
318       If you want to indent the text you enter, you  can  use  the  TAB  key.
319       This  inserts  a  special  control character which makes the characters
320       which follow it begin at the next TAB STOP.  TAB STOPS  normally  occur
321       every 8 columns, but this can be changed with the ^T D command.  PASCAL
322       and C programmers often set TAB STOPS on every 4 columns.
323
324       If for some reason your terminal screen gets messed up (for example, if
325       you  receive  a mail notice from biff), you can have the editor refresh
326       the screen by hitting ^R.
327
328       There are many other keys for deleting text and moving around the file.
329       For example, hit ^D to delete the character the cursor is on instead of
330       deleting backwards like Backspace.  ^D will also delete a line-break if
331       the  cursor is at the end of a line.  Type ^Y to delete the entire line
332       the cursor is on or ^J to delete just from the cursor to the end of the
333       line.
334
335       Hit ^A to move the cursor to the beginning of the line it's on.  Hit ^E
336       to move the cursor to the end of the line.  Hit ^U or ^V for  scrolling
337       the cursor up or down 1/2 a screen's worth.  "Scrolling" means that the
338       text on the screen moves, but the cursor stays at the same place  rela‐
339       tive  to the screen.  Hit ^K U or ^K V to move the cursor to the begin‐
340       ning or the end of the file.  Look at the help screens in the editor to
341       find even more delete and movement commands.
342
343       If  you make a mistake, you can hit ^_ to "undo" it.  On most keyboards
344       you hit just ^- to get ^_, but on some you might have to hold both  the
345       Shift  and Control keys down at the same time to get it.  If you "undo"
346       too much, you can "redo" the changes back into existence by hitting  ^^
347       (type this with just ^6 on most keyboards).
348
349       If  you  were editing in one place within the file, and you then tempo‐
350       rarily had to look or edit some other place within the  file,  you  can
351       get  back to the original place by hitting ^K -.  This command actually
352       returns you to the last place you made a change in the file.   You  can
353       step  through  a  history of places with ^K - and ^K =, in the same way
354       you can step through the history of changes with the "undo" and  "redo"
355       commands.
356
357       When  you  are done editing the file, hit ^K X to exit the editor.  You
358       will be prompted for a file name if you hadn't already named  the  file
359       you were editing.
360
361       When you edit a file, you actually edit only a copy of the file.  So if
362       you decide that you don't want the changes you made to a file during  a
363       particular edit session, you can hit ^C to exit the editor without sav‐
364       ing them.
365
366       If you edit a file and save the changes, a "backup" copy of  that  file
367       is  created  in  the  current directory, with a ~ appended to the name,
368       which contains the original version of the file.
369
370
371   Word wrap and formatting
372       If you type past the right edge of the screen in a C language or PASCAL
373       file, the screen will scroll to the right to follow the cursor.  If you
374       type past the right edge of the screen in a normal file (one whose name
375       doesn't end in .c, .h or .p), JOE will automatically wrap the last word
376       onto the next line so that you don't  have  to  hit  Return.   This  is
377       called word-wrap mode.  Word-wrap can be turned on or off with the ^T W
378       command.  JOE's initialization file is usually set up so that this mode
379       is  automatically turned on for all non-program files.  See the section
380       below on the joerc file to change this and other defaults.
381
382       Aside for Word-wrap mode, JOE does not  automatically  keep  paragraphs
383       formatted  like some word-processors.  Instead, if you need a paragraph
384       to be reformatted, hit ^K J.  This command  "fills  in"  the  paragraph
385       that  the cursor is in, fitting as many words in a line as is possible.
386       A paragraph, in this case, is a block of text separated above and below
387       by a blank line.
388
389       The  margins  which JOE uses for paragraph formatting and word-wrap can
390       be set with the ^T L and ^T R commands.  If the left margin is set to a
391       value  other  than  1, then when you start typing at the beginning of a
392       line, the cursor will immediately jump to the left margin.
393
394       If you want to center a line within the margins, use the ^K A command.
395
396
397   Over-type mode
398       Sometimes it's tiresome to have to delete old text before or after  you
399       insert  new  text.   This happens, for example, when you are changing a
400       table and you want to maintain the column position of the right side of
401       the  table.  When this occurs, you can put the editor in over-type mode
402       with ^T T.  When the editor is in this mode, the characters you type in
403       replace  existing characters, in the way an idealized typewriter would.
404       Also, Backspace simply moves left instead of deleting the character  to
405       the  left,  when it's not at the end or beginning of a line.  Over-type
406       mode is not the natural way of dealing with text electronically, so you
407       should go back to insert-mode as soon as possible by typing ^T T again.
408
409       If  you  need  to  insert while you're in over-type mode, hit ^@.  This
410       inserts a single SPACE into the text.
411
412
413   Control and Meta characters
414       Each character is represented by a number.  For example, the number for
415       'A'  is  65  and the number for '1' is 49.  All of the characters which
416       you normally see have numbers in the range of 32 - 126 (this particular
417       arbitrary assignment between characters and numbers is called the ASCII
418       character set).  The numbers outside of this  range,  from  0  to  255,
419       aren't  usually  displayed,  but sometimes have other special meanings.
420       The number 10, for example, is used for the line-breaks.  You can enter
421       these  special, non-displayed control characters by first hitting ` and
422       then hitting a character in the range @ A B C ... X Y Z [ ^ ]  \  _  to
423       get  the number 0 - 31, and ? to get 127.  For example, if you hit ` J,
424       you'll insert a line-break character, or if you hit ` I, you'll  insert
425       a TAB character (which does the same thing the TAB key does).  A useful
426       control character to enter is 12 (` L), which causes most  printers  to
427       advance  to  the top of the page.  You'll notice that JOE displays this
428       character as an underlined L.  You can enter the characters above  127,
429       the  meta  characters,  by first hitting ^\.  This adds 128 to the next
430       (possibly control) character entered.  JOE  displays  characters  above
431       128  in inverse-video.  Some foreign languages, which have more letters
432       than English, use the meta characters for the rest of  their  alphabet.
433       You have to put the editor in ASIS mode (described later) to have these
434       passed untranslated to the terminal.
435
436
437   Prompts
438       If you hit TAB at any file name prompt, joe will  attempt  to  complete
439       the  name you entered as much as possible.  If it couldn't complete the
440       entire name, because there are more than one possible completions,  joe
441       beeps.   If  you  hit TAB again, joe list the completions.  You can use
442       the arrow keys to move around this directory menu and press  RETURN  or
443       SPACE  to  select an item.  If you press the first letter of one of the
444       directory entries, it will be selected, or if more than one  entry  has
445       the  same first letter, the cursor will jump between those entries.  If
446       you select a subdirectory or .., the directory name is appended to  the
447       prompt  and  the  new  directory  is loaded into the menu.  You can hit
448       Backspace to go back to the previous directory.
449
450       Most prompts record a history of the responses you give them.  You  can
451       hit up and down arrow to step through these histories.
452
453       Prompts  are  actually  single line windows with no status line, so you
454       can use any editing command that you normally use on  text  within  the
455       prompts.   The  prompt history is actually just other lines of the same
456       "prompt file".  Thus you can can search  backwards  though  the  prompt
457       history with the normal ^K F command if you want.
458
459       Since  prompts  are  windows, you can also switch out of them with ^K P
460       and ^K N.
461
462
463   Where am I?
464       Hit ^K SPACE to have JOE report the line  number,  column  number,  and
465       byte number on the last line of the screen.  The number associated with
466       the character the cursor is on (its ASCII code) is also shown.  You can
467       have  the line number and/or column number always displayed on the sta‐
468       tus line by setting placing the appropriate  escape  sequences  in  the
469       status line setup strings.  Edit the joerc file for details.
470
471
472   File operations
473       You  can  hit ^K D to save the current file (possibly under a different
474       name from what the file was called  originally).   After  the  file  is
475       saved, you can hit ^K E to edit a different file.
476
477       If  you  want to save only a selected section of the file, see the sec‐
478       tion on Blocks below.
479
480       If you want to include another file in the file you're editing, use  ^K
481       R to insert it.
482
483
484   Temporarily suspending the editor
485       If  you  need  to temporarily stop the editor and go back to the shell,
486       hit ^K Z.  You might want to do this to stop  whatever  you're  editing
487       and  answer  an e-mail message or read this man page, for example.  You
488       have to type fg or exit (you'll be told which when you  hit  ^K  Z)  to
489       return to the editor.
490
491
492   Searching for text
493       Hit  ^K  F  to  have the editor search forwards or backwards for a text
494       fragment (string) for you.  You will be prompted for the text to search
495       for.  After you hit Return, you are prompted to enter options.  You can
496       just hit Return again to have the editor  immediately  search  forwards
497       for the text, or you can enter one or more of these options:
498
499
500       b      Search backwards instead of forwards.
501
502
503       i      Treat  uppercase and lower case letters as the same when search‐
504              ing.  Normally uppercase and lowercase letters are considered to
505              be different.
506
507
508       nnn    (where  nnn is a number) If you enter a number, JOE searches for
509              the Nth occurrence of the text.  This is  useful  for  going  to
510              specific places in files structured in some regular manner.
511
512
513       r      Replace  text.  If you enter the r option, then you will be fur‐
514              ther prompted for replacement text.  Each time the editor  finds
515              the  search text, you will be prompted as to whether you want to
516              replace the found search text with the  replacement  text.   You
517              hit:  y to replace the text and then find the next occurrence, n
518              to not replace this text, but to then find the next  occurrence,
519              r to replace all of the remaining occurrences of the search text
520              in the remainder of the file  without  asking  for  confirmation
521              (subject  to  the nnn option above), or ^C to stop searching and
522              replacing.
523
524
525       You can hit ^L to repeat the previous search.
526
527
528   Regular Expressions
529       A number of special character sequences may be entered as search text:
530
531
532       \*     This finds zero or more characters.  For example,  if  you  give
533              A\*B  as  the search text, JOE will try to find an A followed by
534              any number of characters and then a B.
535
536
537       \?     This finds exactly one character.  For example, if you give A\?B
538              as the search text, JOE will find AXB, but not AB or AXXB.
539
540
541       \^ \$  These  match  the  beginning and end of a line.  For example, if
542              you give \^test\$, then JOE with find test on a line by itself.
543
544
545       \< \>  These match the beginning and end of a word.   For  example,  if
546              you  give  \<\*is\*\>, then joe will find whole words which have
547              the sub-string is within them.
548
549
550       \[...] This matches any  single  character  which  appears  within  the
551              brackets.   For  example,  if  \[Tt]his is entered as the search
552              string, then JOE finds both This and this.  Ranges of characters
553              can  be  entered within the brackets.  For example, \[A-Z] finds
554              any uppercase letter.  If  the  first  character  given  in  the
555              brackets is ^, then JOE tries to find any character not given in
556              the the brackets.
557
558
559       \c     This works like \*, but matches a  balanced  C-language  expres‐
560              sion.   For example, if you search for malloc(\c), then JOE will
561              find all function calls to malloc, even if there was a )  within
562              the parenthesis.
563
564
565       \+     This  finds zero or more of the character which immediately fol‐
566              lows the \+.  For example, if you give \[  ]\+\[  ],  where  the
567              characters  within the brackets are both SPACE and TAB, then JOE
568              will find whitespace.
569
570
571       \\     Matches a single \.
572
573
574       \n     This finds the special end-of-line or line-break character.
575
576
577       A number of special character  sequences  may  also  be  given  in  the
578       replacement string:
579
580
581       \&     This  gets replaced by the text which matched the search string.
582              For example, if the search  string  was  \<\*\>,  which  matches
583              words,  and  you give "\&", then joe will put quote marks around
584              words.
585
586
587       \0 - \9
588              These get replaced with the text which matched the Nth  \*,  \?,
589              \+, \c, \+, or \[...] in the search string.
590
591
592       \\     Use this if you need to put a \ in the replacement string.
593
594
595       \n     Use  this  if  you  need  to put a line-break in the replacement
596              string.
597
598       Some examples:
599
600       Suppose you have a list of addresses, each on a  separate  line,  which
601       starts  with "Address:" and has each element separated by commas.  Like
602       so:
603
604       Address: S. Holmes, 221b Baker St., London, England
605
606       If you wanted to rearrange the list, to get the country first, then the
607       city, then the person's name, and then the address, you could do this:
608
609       Type ^K F to start the search, and type:
610
611       Address:\*,\*,\*,\*\$
612
613       to  match  "Address:",  the four comma-separated elements, and then the
614       end of the line.  When asked for options, you would type r  to  replace
615       the string, and then type:
616
617       Address:\3,\2,\0,\1
618
619       To  shuffle  the information the way you want it. After hitting return,
620       the search would begin, and the sample line would be changed to:
621
622       Address: England, London, S. Holmes, 221b Baker St.
623
624
625
626   Blocks
627       If you want to move, copy, save or delete a specific section  of  text,
628       you  can  do it with highlighted blocks.  First, move the cursor to the
629       start of the section of text you want to work on, and press ^K B.  Then
630       move  the  cursor  to  the character just after the end of the text you
631       want to affect and press ^K K.  The text between the  ^K  B  and  ^K  K
632       should  become  highlighted.  Now you can move your cursor to someplace
633       else in your document and press ^K  M  to  move  the  highlighted  text
634       there.   You  can press ^K C to make a copy of the highlighted text and
635       insert it to where the cursor is positioned.  ^K Y to deletes the high‐
636       lighted text.  ^K W, writes the highlighted text to a file.
637
638       A  very useful command is ^K /, which filters a block of text through a
639       unix command.  For example, if you select a list of words with ^K B and
640       ^K  K,  and  then  type  ^K  /  sort, the list of words will be sorted.
641       Another useful unix command for ^K /, is tr.  If you type ^K /  tr  a-z
642       A-Z, then all of the letters in the highlighted block will be converted
643       to uppercase.
644
645       After you are finished with some block operations, you can  just  leave
646       the  highlighting on if you don't mind it (of course, if you accidently
647       hit ^K Y without noticing...).  If it really bothers you, however, just
648       hit ^K B ^K K, to turn the highlighting off.
649
650
651   Indenting program blocks
652       Auto-indent  mode toggled with the ^T I command.  The joerc is normally
653       set up so that files with names ending with .p, .c  or  .h  have  auto-
654       indent  mode  enabled.   When  auto-indent  mode is enabled and you hit
655       Return, the cursor will be placed in the same  column  that  the  first
656       non-SPACE/TAB character was in on the original line.
657
658       You  can use the ^K , and ^K . commands to shift a block of text to the
659       left or right.  If no highlighting is set when you give these commands,
660       the  program  block the cursor is located in will be selected, and will
661       be moved by subsequent ^K , and ^K . commands.  The number  of  columns
662       these commands shift by can be set through a ^T option.
663
664
665   Windows
666       You  can  edit  more than one file at the same time or edit two or more
667       different places of the same file.  To do this, hit ^K O, to split  the
668       screen  into two windows.  Use ^K P or ^K N to move the cursor into the
669       top window or the lower window.  Use ^K E to edit a new file in one  of
670       the windows.  A window will go away when you save the file with ^K X or
671       abort the file with ^C.  If you abort a file which exists in  two  win‐
672       dows, one of the window goes away, not the file.
673
674       You  can  hit ^K O within a window to create even more windows.  If you
675       have too many windows on the screen, but you don't  want  to  eliminate
676       them,  you  can hit ^K I.  This will show only the window the cursor is
677       in, or if there was only one window on the screen to begin with, try to
678       fit  all  hidden windows on the screen.  If there are more windows than
679       can fit on the screen, you can hit ^K N on the bottom-most window or ^K
680       P on the top-most window to get to them.
681
682       If  you  gave  more than one file name to JOE on the command line, each
683       file will be placed in a different window.
684
685       You can change the height of the windows with the ^K G and  ^K  T  com‐
686       mands.
687
688
689   Keyboard macros
690       Macros  allow you to record a series of keystrokes and replay them with
691       the press of two keys.  This is useful to  automate  repetitive  tasks.
692       To  start a macro recording, hit ^K [ followed by a number from 0 to 9.
693       The status line will display (Macro n recording...).  Now, type in  the
694       series  of keystrokes that you want to be able to repeat.  The commands
695       you type will have their usual effect. Hit ^K ] to stop  recording  the
696       macro.  Hit ^K followed by the number you recorded the macro in to exe‐
697       cute one iteration of the key-strokes.
698
699       For example, if you want to put "**" in front of a number of lines, you
700       can type:
701
702       ^K [ ^A ** <down arrow> ^K ]
703
704       Which  starts the macro recording, moves the cursor to the beginning of
705       the line, inserts "**", moves the cursor down one line, and  then  ends
706       the recording. Since we included the key-strokes needed to position the
707       cursor on the next line, we can repeatedly use this macro without  hav‐
708       ing  to  move the cursor ourselves, something you should always keep in
709       mind when recording a macro.
710
711       If you find that the macro you are recording itself has a repeated  set
712       of  key-strokes in it, you can record a macro within the macro, as long
713       as you use a different macro number.  Also you can  execute  previously
714       recorded macros from within new macros.
715
716
717
718   Repeat
719       You  can  use the repeat command, ^K \, to repeat a macro, or any other
720       edit command or even a normal character, a specified number  of  times.
721       Hit ^K \, type in the number of times you want the command repeated and
722       press Return.  The next edit command you now give will be repeated that
723       many times.
724
725       For example, to delete the next 20 lines of text, type:
726
727       ^K \ 20<return>^Y
728
729
730   Rectangle mode
731       Type  ^T  X  to have ^K B and ^K K select rectangular blocks instead of
732       stream-of-text blocks.  This mode is useful for moving, copying, delet‐
733       ing  or  saving  columns  of text.  You can also filter columns of text
734       with the ^K / command- if you want to sort a column, for example.   The
735       insert file command, ^K R is also effected.
736
737       When  rectangle mode is selected, over-type mode is also useful (^T T).
738       When over-type mode is selected, rectangles will replace existing  text
739       instead  of  getting inserted before it.  Also the delete block command
740       (^K Y) will clear the selected rectangle with SPACEs and  TABs  instead
741       of  deleting  it.   Over-type  mode is especially useful for the filter
742       block command (^K /), since it will maintain the original width of  the
743       selected column.
744
745
746   Tag search
747       If  you  are  editing a large C program with many source files, you can
748       use the ctags program to generate a tags file.  This  file  contains  a
749       list  of  program symbols and the files and positions where the symbols
750       are defined.  The ^K ; command can be used to lookup  a  symbol  (func‐
751       tions,  defined  constants,  etc.),  load  the file where the symbol is
752       defined into the current window and position the cursor  to  where  the
753       symbol  is defined.  ^K ; prompts you for the symbol you want, but uses
754       the symbol the cursor was on as a default.  Since ^K ; loads the  defi‐
755       nition  file  into  the  current window, you probably want to split the
756       window first with ^K O, to have both the original file and the  defini‐
757       tion file loaded.
758
759
760   Shell windows
761       Hit ^K ' to run a command shell in one of JOE's windows.  When the cur‐
762       sor is at the end of a shell window (use ^K V if  it's  not),  whatever
763       you type is passed to the shell instead of the window.  Any output from
764       the shell or from commands executed in the shell  is  appended  to  the
765       shell  window (the cursor will follow this output if it's at the end of
766       the shell window).  This command is useful for recording the results of
767       shell  commands- for example the output of make, the result of grepping
768       a set of files for a string, or directory listings from  FTP  sessions.
769       Besides typeable characters, the keys ^C, Backspace, DEL, Return and ^D
770       are passed to the shell.  Type the shell exit command to stop recording
771       shell  output.   If  you press ^C in a shell window, when the cursor is
772       not at the end of the window, the shell is killed.
773
774

Environment variables

776       For JOE to operate correctly, a number of  other  environment  settings
777       must  be correct.  The throughput (baud rate) of the connection between
778       the computer and your terminal must be set correctly for JOE to  update
779       the  screen  smoothly  and  allow typeahead to defer the screen update.
780       Use the stty nnn command to set this.  You want to set it as  close  as
781       possible  to  actual throughput of the connection.  For example, if you
782       are connected via a 1200 baud modem, you want to  use  this  value  for
783       stty.   If  you  are connected via 14.4k modem, but the terminal server
784       you are connected to connects to the computer a 9600 baud, you want  to
785       set your speed as 9600 baud.  The special baud rate of 38400 or extb is
786       used to indicate that you have a very-high speed connection, such as  a
787       memory  mapped  console or an X-window terminal emulator.  If you can't
788       use stty to set the actual throughput (perhaps because of a modem  com‐
789       municating  with the computer at a different rate than it's communicat‐
790       ing over the phone line), you can put a numeric value in the BAUD envi‐
791       ronment  variable  instead  (use setenv BAUD 9600 for csh or BAUD=9600;
792       export BAUD for sh).
793
794       The TERM environment variable must be  set  to  the  type  of  terminal
795       you're  using.   If the size (number of lines/columns) of your terminal
796       is different from what is reported in the TERMCAP  or  TERMINFO  entry,
797       you  can  set this with the stty rows nn cols nn command, or by setting
798       the LINES and COLUMNS environment variables.
799
800       JOE normally expects that flow control between the  computer  and  your
801       terminal  to  use  ^S/^Q  handshaking (I.E., if the computer is sending
802       characters too fast for your terminal, your terminal sends ^S  to  stop
803       the output and ^Q to restart it).  If the flow control uses out-of-band
804       or hardware handshaking or if your terminal is fast  enough  to  always
805       keep up with the computer output and you wish to map ^S/^Q to edit com‐
806       mands, you can set the environment variable NOXON to have  JOE  attempt
807       to  turn off ^S/^Q handshaking.  If the connection between the computer
808       and your terminal uses no handshaking and your  terminal  is  not  fast
809       enough  to  keep  up  with  the output of the computer, you can set the
810       environment variable DOPADDING to have JOE  slow  down  the  output  by
811       interspersing   PAD  characters  between  the  terminal  screen  update
812       sequences.
813
814

Filenames

816       Wherever JOE expects you to enter a file name, whether on  the  command
817       line or in prompts within the editor, you may also type:
818
819
820       !command
821              Read or write data to or from a shell command.  For example, use
822              joe '!ls' to get a copy of your directory  listing  to  edit  or
823              from  within  the editor use ^K D !mail jhallen@world.std.com to
824              send the file being edited to me.
825
826
827       >>filename
828              Use this to have JOE append the edited text to the  end  of  the
829              file "filename."
830
831
832       filename,START,SIZE
833              Use  this  to access a fixed section of a file or device.  START
834              and SIZE may be entered in decimal (ex.: 123) octal (ex.:  0777)
835              or hexadecimal (ex.: 0xFF).  For example, use joe /dev/fd0,508,2
836              to edit bytes 508 and 509 of the first floppy drive in Linux.
837
838
839       -      Use this to get input from the standard input or to write output
840              to  the standard output.  For example, you can put joe in a pipe
841              of commands: quota -v | joe - | mail root, if you want  to  com‐
842              plain about your low quota.
843
844
845

The joerc file

847       ^T  options,  the  help  screens and the key-sequence to editor command
848       bindings are all defined in JOE's initialization file.  If you  make  a
849       copy  of  this  file  (which  normally  resides  in  /etc/joe/joerc) to
850       $HOME/.joerc, you can customize these setting to your liking.  The syn‐
851       tax  of  the initialization file should be fairly obvious and there are
852       further instruction in it.
853
854

Acknowledgments

856       JOE was written by Joseph H. Allen.  If you have bug reports  or  ques‐
857       tions,    e-mail    them   to   jhallen@world.std.com.    Larry   Foard
858       (entropy@world.std.com) and Gary Gray (ggray@world.std.com) also helped
859       with the creation of JOE.
860
861
862
863                                                                        JOE(1)
Impressum