Mr. Edit
Mr. Edit
Mr. Edit is the Clipper library that gives you absolute control over your application's memos. To Mr. Edit, a memo is an object, built to your specifications and handed back to you to manipulate as you wish. To you, Mr. Edit is a collection of text editing tools and concepts. The functions described below are grouped according to purpose. Where that purpose might not be obvious from the group heading, or wherever we felt like telling you more, we have added extra commentary.
Creation/Destruction:
Create and destroy memos. meCreate() lets you define the maximimum size of the memo, both in number of characters and number of lines. No more worries about users putting 8 lines of notes in a 4 line memo, or 600 characters of notes in one 500-character field.
meCreate() Create a memo object
meDestroy() Destroy a memo object, release allocated memory
Modify Text Buffer:
Text is added to the memo's text buffer via meApplyKey() (one key at a time), meInsertText() (insert a string or block of text at the cursor position), and meSetText() (replace the entire contents of the memo with new text).
meApplyKey() Place a key in the memo
meInsertText() Place a string into the text buffer
meSetText() Set the memo's text buffer to a new string
Deletion is accomplished in many ways; the meDelete() function takes an optional argument specifying the number of characters to the right of the cursor to be deleted; the default is one character. If text is marked (using meBlockOn() or meDropAnchor()) and meDelete() is called without specifying the number of characters to delete, the entire highlighted block will be deleted. Code samples are provided to demonstrate when this is a really handy feature, and when you might want to provide your users with a Whoops clause to undelete a block.
meBackSpace() Backspace one character
meDelete() Delete one or more characters
meDelEOL() Delete from current cursor position to end of line
meDelLine() Delete the current line
meDelWordLeft() Delete the word to the left
meDelWordRight() Delete the word to the right
Extract Text from Buffer:
Take a letter, take a line, take a block, take the whole darned thing! This is how to persuade Mr. Edit to hand over some or all of the text. These functions do not remove the text from the memo object (only the delete functions do that)+; they simply give you a copy of the requested data.
meGetChar() Get character at cursor position
meGetLine() Get the current line of text with or without expanded tabs
meGetMarkedText() Get contents of marked block
meGetText() Get a copy of the current memo text
Navigation:
Most of these functions require little explanation, except to say that meUp(), meDown(), meScroll(), meLeft() and meRight() take an optional argument specifying how many rows or columns to move in the designated direction. If the optional argument is not specified, they default to moving one row or column.
meBOF() Is the cursor positioned at the start of memo?
meDown() Move the cursor down
meEnd() Move the cursor to the end of the line
meEOF() Is the cursor positioned at the end of the memo?
meGoBottom() Move the cursor to the end of the memo
meGoto() Move text cursor position to nLine, nCol
meGoTop() Move the cursor to the beginning of the memo
meHome() Move the cursor to the beginning of the line
meLeft() Move the cursor to the left
mePageDown() Move cursor down one page
mePageUp() Move cursor up one page
meRight() Move the cursor to the right
meScreenGoto() Go to a screen coordinate
meScroll() Scroll the memo text up/down in the display window
meUp() Move the cursor up
meWordBegin() Move the cursor to the beginning of current word
meWordEnd() Move the cursor to the end of current word
meWordLeft() Move the cursor one word to the left
meWordRight() Move the cursor one word to the right
Memo Status:
These functions provide the vital statistics of the memo: How big is it now? How big can it get? What line is the cursor on? At what column position on that line is the cursor? Is there more text below the bottom of the window?
meBuffSize() Returns the memo object's buffer size
meColPos() Returns the column the cursor is in
meIsChanged() Were changes made to the memo?
meIsMore() Is there more text below the bottom of the window
meLineCount() Returns the number of lines in the memo
meLinePos() Returns the line containing the cursor
meMaxLines() Returns the maximum number of lines allowed
meTextLen() Returns the current length of the memo
meWinCol() Returns the current cursor column within window
meWinRow() Returns the current cursor row within window.
General:
When you are performing sleight-of-hand wizardry, or changing the memo's default display characteristics, you'll want to turn off the screen updates until the memo is all dressed up with someplace to go. Mr. Edit's display handling functions behave in the same way as Clipper's dispbegin() and dispend().
meDispBegin() Begin buffering screen output
meDispEnd() Decrement screen buffering counter, display updates
Some useful functions for detecting keystrokes: Did the user press Ctrl+X, indicating a desire to cut a block to the clipboard, or was that just the Down Arrow key? Inkey() alone won't tell you... but Mr. Edit will.
meIsAlt() Is ALT key depressed?
meIsCtrl() Is CTRL key depressed?
meIsShift() Is SHIFT key depressed?
Marking:
These are some of the most powerful weapons in Mr. Edit's arsenal.
Mr. Edit implements five kinds of blocks for the editing pleasure of your users.
There are blocks that include the cursor and blocks that don't, and _those_ come in two modes:
1. Typing new characters just makes the the block bigger.
2. Borrowing from the GUI world, the first character typed (or inserted via meInsertText()) causes the block to be deleted before the new text is added.
Because you'll occasionally want it, and because we can, we give you block marking a line at a time.
Mr. Edit also offers anchors which bear a striking similarity to blocks. The difference is in the way they are implemented. Blocks are intended for manipulation by the user and there is only one. Anchors are yours, all yours, to pull off feats of magic behind the scenes without affecting your user's blocks.
Block Handling:
meBlockOff() End block/mark mode
meBlockOn() Begin block/mark mode
meBlockSize() Get the size of the highlighted block of text
meBlockSwap() Swap the start/end positions of a marked block
meBlockType() If block mode is on, what is the current type?
meGetMarkedText() Get contents of marked block
meIsBlock() Is memo in block mode?
Anchors:
meDropAnchor() Drop an anchor to start block mode processing
meIsAnchorBelow() Is the anchor below the cursor position?
meRaiseAnchor() Remove an anchor placed by meDropAnchor()
Bookmarks:
Oh, they're not much to look at-- in fact, they're invisible to the naked eye, but the first time they help you pull a rabbit out of a hat you'll appreciate their simple elegance. Bookmarks let you mark a spot now that you can return to in the future, without having to worry about the editing that happens in between. Mr. Edit makes sure that the bookmarks take you to the exact position in the text you marked. And to make sure you never run out, we give you 32 bookmarks for each memo.
meClearBookmarks() Clear out memo object's array of bookmarks
meFreeBookmark() Release a bookmark
meGotoBookmark() Move the cursor to the location stored in bookmark
meSetBookmark() Place a bookmark in the memo's text buffer
Save/Restore Memo:
meSaveMemo() enables you to capture the state of a memo object and store it to persistent media (e.g., write it to an ascii file on disk or store it in a memo field of a DBF file). The complementary function, meRestMemo() will take the memo object and the string returned by meSaveMemo(), and restore the memo to that captured state. The cursor will be just where the user left it, any highlighted text will still be highlighted, bookmarks will still be in place... as if the editing had]+chr(13) never been interrupted.
meRestMemo() Restore internal state of memo from a magic string
meSaveMemo() Save the memo's internals to a string
Search:
Just the thing for finding those missing words or fixing the spelling of "thigamabob".
meFindChar() Move cursor to first instance of a char in a set
meSearch() Search for a string in memo from current position
Everything you need to control the look, feel and position of the memo. It's your memo object-- have it your way!
meSetBottom() Set/Get memo object's bottom display row
meSetColor() Set/Get the memo colors
meSetColTracker() Set/Get status of memo's column tracker
meSetCRMark() Set/Get the current CR mark
meSetEOFMark() Set/Get the memo object's EOF display character
meSetInsert() Set/Get the insert mode for memo
meSetLeft() Set/Get memo object's left column
meSetLineWidth() Set/Get function for line width
meSetPanCols() Set/Get number of columns to pan
meSetRight() Set/Get memo object's right column
meSetTabMark() Set/Get the current TAB mark
meSetTabSize() Set/Get number of spaces between tab stops
meSetTop() Set/Get memo object's top row
meSetWordDelim() Set/Get the delimiters for next/previous word]
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