PS's VDE Enhancement Instructions

Table of Contents


Introduction ........................... 1
Distribution ........................... 2
Requirements ........................... 2
Installation ........................... 2
Modifying VDE ........................ 2
Configuring ED.COM ................... 3
Operation .............................. 5
The Dynamic Function Key Prompts ..... 5
Control-Q on the Keypad .............. 5
Ctrl-Up Arrow and Ctrl-Down Arrow .... 5
The Character Undelete Feature ....... 6
What's in ED.VDF ..................... 6
Modifying the Function Keys .......... 7



PS's VDE(tm) Enhancement Instructions

** Introduction

PS's VDE Enhancement is a "parent" program that runs VDE release
1.52 through 1.61 and adds features to enhance its operation. One
of the features added is "dynamic function key prompts". This
feature makes it possible to display prompts for all 40 function
key assignments on the screen using only one screen line. The
prompts displayed are determined by the keys used. For example,
if you press the Ctrl key, the prompts for Ctrl-F1 through Ctrl-
F10 are shown. This feature is especially handy if you draw
lines and boxes, because you can see the drawing characters as-
signed to the Alt-function keys (when you are using the supplied
WordStar 4 key definitions). Note: Function keys can be used
only when VDE is in the command mode.

Another feature provided is character undelete. VDE can restore
deleted lines or blocks, but it cannot restore more than a single
character deleted with Back Space or Del. PS's VDE Enhancement
stores characters deleted with Back Space and Del in a buffer,
and lets you restore them by pressing a special key sequence.

A third feature is enhanced utilization of the up and down arrow
keys. The key combinations Ctrl-up arrow and Ctrl-down arrow
produce the same key codes as Ctrl-W and Ctrl-Z, so that you can
use the up and down arrow keys to move the text up and down on
the screen. If you have version 1.54 or later, there is a provi-
sion to replace its Ctrl-up arrow command with a function key.

A fourth feature that PS's VDE Enhancement adds is enhanced uti-
lization of the keypad keys. This feature is useful for those
who have 84-key keyboards, and those with 101-key keyboards who
use the numeric keypad (with Num Lock off) instead of the sepa-
rate arrow keys. It lets you perform a greater variety of cursor
movements by causing the keypad 5 key to produce ^Q when pressed.
This allows you, for example, to jump to the right edge of a line
by pressing the 5 and 6 (rt arrow) keys, or to jump to the bottom
of the screen by pressing 5 and 2 (down arrow). If you have
version 1.54 or later, there is a provision to replace its keypad
5 command with a function key (sort of).

Note: The third and fourth features will not work if you have
modified the keyboard type-ahead buffer. However, they will work
on regular as well as enhanced keyboards.

The dynamic function key prompts and keypad enhancement are op-
tional, and you can use the program just to add character unde-
lete and Ctrl-up/down if you wish.

Note: This document will refer to the disk containing the PS's
VDE Enhancement files as "this disk". These instructions assume
that you are familiar with general DOS operation, and that you
know how to copy files, create directories, and assign a
drive/directory as the default. If you are unfamiliar with these


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terms, consult your DOS manual.

** Distribution

This program is distributed as "copyrighted but free" software,
and you are free to use it and distribute it to others, as long
as you include this documentation with the other files, and as
long as you do not modify either the program or the documenta-
tion.

You may not sell this program for any amount, but you may charge
a nominal fee (e.g. $5.00) for the disk on which it is distribut-
ed. If you are a shareware distributor, it is recommended that
you combine this program with other utilities on a disk to pro-
vide your customer a greater service.

If you have any suggestions to improve this program, please send
them to

Patrick Swayne
155 Baker St.
Coloma, MI 49038

Warranty

This program is provided AS IS without any warranty, expressed or
implied, including but not limited to fitness for a particular
purpose.

Disclaimer

In no event will Patrick Swayne be liable to you for any damages,
including any lost profits, lost savings, or other incidental or
consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to
use this program, even if Patrick Swayne has been advised of the
possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party.

** Requirements

To use PS's VDE Enhancement, you will need a PC-compatible com-
puter capable of running VDE, the appropriate version of MS-DOS
or PC-DOS, and enough memory to run your version of VDE. ED.COM
itself (the "parent" program that enhances VDE) uses about 3k,
but there is usually enough leeway in the specified memory re-
quirements for VDE to allow for it.

** Installation

The first thing that you should do before installing this package
is to make back up copies of this disk and your VDE disk.

Modifying VDE

This section describes the changes that must be made to VDE so
that it can run with the PS's VDE Enhancement. To make the


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changes, follow these steps.

1. Copy the files ED.COM and ED.VDF from this disk to your VDE
disk and/or directory. If you have version 1.52, copy
ED152.VDF instead of ED.VDF, and rename it to ED.VDF.

2. Make your VDE drive and directory the default drive and
directory.

3. Type VINST (VINSTALL if version 1.52) and press Return.
Select nstallation at the main menu, and select 1 at the
installation menu (if your computer is not 100% IBM compati-
ble, you cannot use the VDE Enhancement). Press Return at
all of the prompts, or enter your preferences, until you get
to "Ignore enhanced keyboard:", and type Y. Press Esc to
return to the main menu, and press S to save the changes.

4. If you want dynamic function key prompts, select ption
configuration at the main menu. Enter Y at the "Use COMMAND
mode:" prompt if VDE is not already set to the command mode.
Press Return or enter your choices at each prompt until you
get to "Reserve status line:", and enter Y. Continue with
the rest of the Option prompts, press Esc to return to the
main menu, and press S to save the changes.

4. If you are installing dynamic function key prompts, and you
want to use WordStar-type prompts, select unction keys
from the main menu and ead file from the function key
menu. Enter ED.VDF as the file to read. This is a modified
version of WS4.VDF, with more functions added, and its func-
tions match the default dynamic function key prompts. Press
Return to exit from the function key menu, and press S to
save the changes. Note: ED.VDF contains replacements for
the Ctrl-up arrow and keypad 5 commands of version 1.54 and
later. See "What's in ED.VDF" later in this document for
more information.

Configuring ED.COM

ED.COM is the "parent" program that runs VDE.COM as a "child" and
adds features to enhance the operation of VDE. After ED.COM is
installed properly, you should type ED at the system prompt to
run VDE rather than typing VDE. To configure ED.COM to work
properly with your VDE, perform the following steps (your VDE
disk/directory should be the default):

1. Type ED INSTALL and press Return.

2. When you are prompted for the name of "this program", press
Return. (Later, if you decide to use a command other than
ED to start VDE, you may rename ED.COM.)

3. ED.COM will prompt for your VDE execution path. Enter the
complete path describing the location of your VDE.COM file.
For example, if you have VDE.COM on drive C: in a directory


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called VDE, enter C:\VDE\VDE.COM. Press Return after your
entry. If you have a floppy only system, you should include
the drive that the VDE program disk will be in during normal
operation.

4. ED.COM will ask "Does BACK SPACE delete characters?". if
your VDE works like WordStar version 3 (Back Space moves the
cursor back without deleting characters), answer N to this
question. ED.COM needs the answer to this question and the
next one so that its character undelete feature will work
correctly.

5. ED.COM will ask "Does DEL work like Control-G?". Answer Y
to this question if your VDE is set up so that the Del or
Delete key removes the character at the cursor rather than
the character to the left of the cursor. Answer N if it
deletes the character to the left of the cursor.

6. ED.COM will ask "Do you want Caps Lock and Ctrl switched?"
Answer Y if you have a 101-key keyboard and you would rather
have the Ctrl key in its old position. Do this whether you
have another key switching program installed or not, because
it will not work correctly with ED.COM. (It will continue
to function normally while you are not running ED.)

7. ED.COM will ask "Do you want ^Q from keypad 5 (with Num Lock
off)?". Answer Y to this question if you want this feature,
or N if you do not.

8. ED.COM will ask "Do you want Dynamic Function Key Prompts?".
Answer Y or N depending on whether you want them or not.

9. If you answered Y at step 8, ED.COM will ask "How many
screen lines does your VDE use? (A=25, B=43, C=50)". Type A
if you will be using normal 25 line operation, B for 43 line
EGA operation, or C for 50 line VGA operation. Note: There
is a bug in VDE versions 1.52 through 1.54 that causes it to
forget that you have reserved a status line if you use Alt-E
to change the number of screen lines while the program is
running. Therefore, you must change the number of screen
lines before you start one of these versions of VDE, using a
utility such as the Norton NCC program. If you use Alt-E,
the dynamic function key prompts will not work.

10. If you answered Y at step 8, ED.COM will ask "Do you want to
change the function key prompt colors?" The function key
prompt consists of a key number and a 7 character label for
each of the keys F1 through F10. If you answer Y, you will
be prompted for the key foreground color, the key background
color, the label foreground color, and the label background
color. The default colors are white (light gray) on black
for the key numbers, and black on white for the key labels.
Colors should be entered as hexadecimal numbers from the
following chart:



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0 black 4 red 8 dk gray C lt red
1 blue 5 magenta 9 lt blue D lt magenta
2 green 6 brown A lt green E yellow
3 cyan 7 lt gray B lt cyan F white

You should use only colors 0-7 for background colors.

11. If you answered Y at step 8, ED.COM will ask "Do you want to
change the function key prompts?". Answer N for now. Lat-
er, if you change the function key assignments with VINST,
you can run ED INSTALL again and answer Y to this question.
ED.COM will then display the existing prompt for each key
and allow you to type in a new one. See "Modifying the
Function Keys" later in this document for more information.

After you either answer N to the "change function key prompts"
question, or finish providing the new prompts, ED.COM will modify
itself with your changes.

This completes the basic installation of PS's VDE Enhancement.

** Operation

Starting VDE with PS's VDE Enhancement installed is the same as
starting VDE without it except that you type ED at the DOS prompt
instead of VDE. Once VDE has started, however, there are some
differences in operation, and some additional commands.

The Dynamic Function Key Prompts

When you first start VDE with the Enhancement installed (and the
key prompts enabled), there will a single line of function key
prompts on the bottom screen line. If you press a Shift, Ctrl,
or Alt key, the function key prompts will automatically change to
indicate the correct response with that key held down. When you
release the Shift, Ctrl, or Alt key, the function key prompts
will again show the unshifted responses.

Control-Q on the Keypad

If you installed ED.COM so that the keypad 5 key (with Num Lock
off) produces Control-Q, you can use it to issue extra commands
from the keypad without having to hold down the Ctrl key. Assum-
ing that Num Lock is off, here are the extra commands that are
available (5+8 means to type 5 and then 8, but not the +).

Key combination Command
5+8 Move cursor to screen top
5+2 Move cursor to screen bottom
5+4 Move cursor to left side of screen
5+6 Move cursor to right side of screen

Ctrl-Up Arrow and Ctrl-Down Arrow

In addition to using Ctrl-W, Ctrl-X, or the keypad + and - keys,


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you can use Ctrl-up arrow and Ctrl-down arrow to move the text up
or down in the current screen window. This feature is handy if
you use VDE on a laptop that does not have a keypad.

The Character Undelete Feature

One of the best features added to VDE by ED.COM is the character
undelete feature. If you delete characters from the screen one
at a time (rather than a line at a time or by deleting a marked
block), the deleted characters are stored in a buffer, and they
can be restored one at a time beginning with the most recent
character deleted. The character undelete buffer holds 256 char-
acters, so if you have deleted more, only the last 256 will be
preserved.

Note: The following discussion assumes that Back Space is set to
delete the character to the left of the cursor, and Del is set to
delete the character at the cursor. Substitute Del for Back
Space and Ctrl-G for Del if your VDE is configured to work like
WordStar 3.

There are two different ways to restore deleted characters, de-
pending on how they were deleted. If they were deleted with the
Back Space key, press Alt-H for each character you want to unde-
lete. If they were deleted by the Del key, use Alt-J. Note: In
order for Alt-J to work correctly, the Insert mode must be on
(the word Ins will be at the top of the screen).

If you mistakenly use Alt-H to undelete characters deleted with
Del, or Alt-J to undelete characters deleted with Back Space, the
undeleted characters will be backwards on the screen. For exam-
ple, if "house" was deleted and then restored incorrectly, it
would come out "esuoh". To fix the situation, use Del to remove
text incorrectly restored with Alt-J, or Back Space to remove
text incorrectly restored with Alt-H, and then use the correct
key combination to restore it.

If you would like to purge (zap) all of the deleted characters
from the character delete buffer, press Alt-Z. To remove (kill)
characters one at a time, press Alt-K once for each character you
want to remove.

The character undelete feature does not always restore deleted
characters correctly. In particular, in the non-document mode
tabs will be restored as spaces (one space for each deleted tab
character. If you have version 1.52, do not attempt to restore
deleted graphic characters. They will be restored as the actual
graphic characters rather than as Alt-G sequences, and the system
may interpret them as function key commands with undesirable
results.

What's in ED.VDF

ED.VDF (or ED152.VDF) is a modified version of WS4.VDF. It con-
tains the same key responses with the following changes. F7


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(labeled Ruler in the dynamic function key prompts) toggles the
ruler at the top of the screen on or off. F8 executes ^KQ, which
causes VDE to quit without recording any changes you may have
made to the current file. Because of a bug, VDE versions 1.52
through 1.54 do not ask "Abandon changes?" when ^KQ is issued as
a macro, so this command is labeled "Quit!" (note the exclamation
point) to alert you to this. (This is fixed in later versions.)

Shift-F3 executes ^OE, (bring the current line to the top of the
screen) so it is a replacement for the Ctrl-up arrow command of
version 1.54 and later. Shift-F4 executes ^OE and 10 ^W's, which
brings the current line to the middle of the screen, so it serves
as a replacement for the version 1.54 and later keypad 5 command
(at least, if your screen has 25 lines).

Ctrl-F7 causes VDE to draw a crossed line character, which is the
one box character missing from the Alt-function keys. The line
characters drawn by ED.VDF are the single line type (as used by
WordStar) rather than the double line type. If you have VDE
version 1.53 or later, you can still use Alt-G to draw the double
line characters.

Modifying the Function Keys

If you want to modify the responses assigned to the function
keys, you can do it with VINST by loading in another VDF file, or
by entering new values manually. After you make your changes,
run ED INSTALL as instructed previously and answer each question
with the value that is currently set (or just press Return) until
you get to the "Do you want to change the function key prompt
colors?" question. You can answer Y here if you want to change
the colors, or N if you do not. Then answer Y to the "Do you
want to change the function key prompts?" question.

ED.COM will show you the current prompt for the unshifted F1 key.
You can enter a new prompt of 1 to 7 characters, or you can press
Return by itself to accept the old prompt as it is. Then ED.COM
will display the prompt for the F2 key and allow you to enter a
new one, or accept the old one, and so on until you have hand an
opportunity to modify the prompts of all 10 function keys. Then
ED.COM will display the prompts as they will appear during opera-
tion (using any new colors you may have selected), and ask "Is
this OK?" If you answer N, ED.COM will start over with the un-
shifted F1 key. If you answer Y, ED.COM will start with prompt
for Shift-F1. This process will continue until you have had the
opportunity to change all 40 prompts.

You can enter a graphic character into any prompt by typing a
dollar sign ($) followed by the hexadecimal value of the graphic
character. If you want to put a dollar sign into a prompt, type
two dollar signs.






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