HP OpenVMS Systems Documentation

OpenVMS User's Manual

You can use EVE commands to select sections of text for copying, moving, deleting, or other editing operations. This section discusses how to move text.

For information on how to move text from one buffer to another, see Section 8.18.

You can also select a rectangular area (a box) of text rather than a linear range of text to move, erase, or duplicate text. For information about using box editing commands, see Section 8.11.

To move text, follow these steps:

Table 8-5 describes EVE editing keys used to move text.

Table 8-6 describes EVE commands used to move text.

Tutorial: Moving Text

To select, remove, and insert text from one location to another:

1. Invoke EVE to edit the file RHYMES.DAT.
2. Move the cursor to the beginning of the second line of RHYMES.DAT and press the Select key.
3. Press the down arrow key once.
   The second line of text is highlighted.
4. Press the Remove key.
   The second line of text is removed from the current buffer.

   She rhymes with tree, and this one makes three. [End of file]

5. Press the Enter key twice and then press the Insert Here key.
   The text in the Insert Here buffer is inserted at the current cursor location.

   She rhymes with tree, also with bee, and this one makes three. [End of file]

6. To exit from EVE, press Ctrl/Z.

With the COPY command, you can copy text elsewhere. The STORE TEXT command is the same as the COPY command. You can substitute the STORE TEXT command wherever the COPY command is used in the following example.

Tutorial: Copying Text

To copy text when the buffer is set in a forward direction:

1. Invoke EVE to edit the file RHYMES.DAT.
2. Move the cursor to the first line of text.
3. Press the Select key.
4. Press Ctrl/E to move the cursor to the end of the first line.
5. Enter the COPY command. The Insert Here buffer now contains a copy of the selected text.
6. Move the cursor to the line above also with bee,.
7. Press the Insert Here key. Your buffer should now look as follows:

   She rhymes with tree, She rhymes with tree, also with bee, and this one makes three. [End of file]

8. Move the cursor to the beginning of the first line of text. Use the Select key and then the Remove key to delete the first line of text.
9. To exit from EVE, press Ctrl/Z.

You can edit text that has rectangular areas, or boxes, as well as standard linear ranges. For example, you can select a box containing a list or columns in a table, and then cut and paste the box or perform some other editing operation on the box.

8.11.1 Selecting a Box of Text

To select a box of text, follow these steps:

1. Put the cursor where you want to start the selection---typically, where you want the upper left corner of the box.
2. Enter the BOX SELECT command.
3. Move the cursor to where you want the diagonally opposite corner of the box --- typically, moving from upper left to lower right.

As you move the cursor, text that you cross is highlighted in bold video (a regular selection uses reverse video). The box is defined by diagonally opposite corners. If you move from upper left to lower right, the character that the cursor is on is outside the box, that is, the lower right corner of the box is left of the cursor.

You can then edit the box by using any of the editing commands that ordinarily work on a linear or a rectangular range. You need not redefine keys. Refer to the Extensible Versatile Editor Reference Manual for further information.

You can use FIND SELECTED if the selection does not cross lines or OPEN SELECTED. You can also use pending delete.

If you are going to make several box edits---for example, in editing multicolumn tables and lists---use the SET BOX SELECT command. SET BOX SELECT redefines several commands and keys as the corresponding BOX commands and makes other editing operations work on boxes instead of linear ranges.

To cancel a box selection, repeat SELECT or BOX SELECT, or use RESET.

8.11.2 Cutting and Pasting a Box of Text

Cutting a box usually pads the area with spaces to keep the column alignment of text to the right of the box. Pasting a box usually overwrites existing text. Tab characters in the box, or that overlap the box, are converted to spaces to keep the column alignment of text.

Table 8-7 lists the EVE commands for box editing.

Tutorial: Cutting and Pasting Text

To select and then cut and paste a box of text:

1. Invoke EVE to create the buffer CITIES.DAT and enter the following text:

   Rome Paris New York London Tunis Boston Tokyo Bonn Lisbon

2. Move the cursor to the left of the letter P in the word Paris. Enter the BOX SELECT command.
3. Move the cursor two spaces to the right of the second letter n in the word Bonn---the diagonally opposite corner of the box. The text that you cross is highlighted in bold video. Enter the BOX CUT command.
   EVE removes the box of text.
4. Move the cursor to the right of the column that begins with the words New York.
5. Enter the BOX PASTE command.
   EVE pastes the box of text into a new column, as follows:

   Rome New York Paris London Boston Tunis Tokyo Lisbon Bonn [End of file]

Table 8-8 lists the SET BOX SELECT commands.

You can then select, cut, and paste a box by using the Select, Remove, and Insert Here keys, without having to redefine the keys.

8.12 Using Pending Delete

You can use pending delete to erase selected text. Pending delete refers to erasing a selection by typing new text, pressing the space bar, or by using delete (typically, pressing the Delete key).

With a box selection, pending delete works like BOX CUT, usually padding the area with spaces to keep the column alignment of text to the right of the box.

Pending delete gives you an alternative way of cutting and pasting text because pending delete does not use the Insert Here buffer. For more information about pending delete, see the EVE online help topic called Pending Delete.

8.12.1 Erasing a Selection with Pending Delete

To erase a selection using pending delete, follow these steps:

1. Invoke a file in EVE.
2. To enable pending delete, use the SET PENDING DELETE command. The default setting is SET NOPENDING DELETE.
3. Select the text you want to erase. You can use SELECT or BOX SELECT. (You cannot use SELECT ALL.)
4. Type new text or use the DELETE command.

To put back (restore) the text you erased with pending delete, follow these steps:

1. Put the cursor where you want to restore the text. If restoring a box selection, put the cursor where you want the upper left corner of the box to be.
2. Use RESTORE SELECTION. If a box selection was erased with pending delete, use RESTORE BOX SELECTION. If you used SET BOX SELECT, you can use RESTORE SELECTION (without having to redefine a key).

Restoring a box works like BOX PASTE, usually overwriting existing text. When using the SET BOX NOPAD command, the effects of box editing depend on the mode that the buffer is in (insert or overstrike, as shown in the status line):

• In insert mode, cutting a box makes text to the right of the box "collapse" to the left, closing the gap. Tab characters to the right of the box are also converted to spaces to keep the column alignment as the text collapses to the left. This method is useful for removing columns from a table or list, such as in turning a 4-column table into a 2-column table. Pasting a box pushes existing text to the right, which is useful for adding columns in the middle of a table.
• In overstrike mode, cutting a box pads the area with spaces to keep the column alignment of text to the right of the box. Pasting a box overwrites existing text. The effects are the same as with SET BOX PAD, which is the default setting.

The buffer mode also affects erasing a box with pending delete and restoring an erased box.

8.13 Finding and Replacing Text

With EVE commands, you can search for specific text in a buffer. You can search for every occurrence of specific text, and you can search for text that is on a single line or spans a line break. Also, you can search for text using wildcards. This section describes methods for searching and replacing text.

Table 8-9 describes the EVE commands that locate text in a buffer.

Use the FIND command to locate specific text in the current buffer. By default, EVE defines the E1 key (Find key on VT200, VT300, and VT400 series terminals and the PF1 key on VT100 series terminals) as the FIND command.

If the search string contains all lowercase letters, EVE disregards the case of letters and locates any occurrence of the string. Thus, the search string the matches the, THE, THe, and thE. If the search string contains one or more uppercase letters, EVE finds only the occurrences of the string in which the case of each letter is exactly the same. Therefore, the only match for the search string tHis is tHis. For example:

1. Enter the FIND command.
2. Type the text (called the search string) that you want to locate.

The current direction of the buffer determines whether EVE first searches in a forward or reverse direction.

If EVE cannot find the string in the current direction but finds it in the opposite direction, EVE prompts you to change direction.

To search in the opposite direction, type YES (Y) and press the Enter key. EVE moves the cursor to the first occurrence of the string in the opposite direction. The current direction in the highlighted status line does not change, however.