Re: [open-cobol-list] Hybrid Editor XE(Was: Anybody use emacs to code COBOL?)

[Kevin Monceaux]

Duke

On Fri, Aug 07, 2009 at 12:10:45PM -0600, Duke Normandin wrote:

> On Fri, 7 Aug 2009, Kevin Monceaux wrote:
> 
> > Actually, above I was referring to Hybrid Editor XE.  David described
> > it as a full ISPF environment for Linux.  While it does have a menu
> > with a few options similar to ISPF it's definitely not a full ISPF
> > environment.
> 
> So do you prefer it to the THE editor? I guess what I need to know is
> which one would more COBOL-friendly? I've never laid eyes on either of
> them.

Yes.  Moving between the command line, prefix area, and editor area
feel very "natural" in XE, at least for someone used to ISPF and 3270
terminals.  XE seems to give the ENTER key the "best of both worlds"
behavior.  It acts either like a 3270 newline key or enter key
depending on what one's doing and makes moving around feel very ISPF
editor like.  From the command line hitting ENTER key moves the cursor
to the prefix area, and tab can be used to move to the edit area.  In
the edit area when inserting lines hitting the ENTER key after
entering some text on an inserted line inserts another line and moves
to it.  Hitting ENTER on an blank inserted line removed the line and
moves the cursor to the prefix area.  

In THE one has to use the HOME key to switch between the command line
and editor area and the F12 key while in the editor area to get to the
prefix area.  Also, many of the prefix commands, such as r to repeat a
line, don't work in THE even though they're documented in the THE
documentation.  And it's hit and miss.  UC and LC to upper case or
lower case a line are documented.  UC works, LC doesn't.  I tried
installing THE from the Debian package available in the Debian package
repository, which is a slightly older version, and also tried building
the latest version from source and saw the same problems with the
prefix commands.


-- 

Kevin
http://www.RawFedDogs.net
http://www.WacoAgilityGroup.org
Bruceville, TX

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.
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