Artifact 85f2cad20a45ab8cb65c47393e0224789cd1a1a096d1123ee2b4eb59c252cc29:
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psl-1983/3-1/doc/nmode/nm-metax.ibm
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at
2020-04-21 19:40:01
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— Add Reduce 3.0 to the historical section of the archive, and some more
files relating to version sof PSL from the early 1980s. Thanks are due to
Paul McJones and Nelson Beebe for these, as well as to all the original
authors.git-svn-id: https://svn.code.sf.net/p/reduce-algebra/code/historical@5328 2bfe0521-f11c-4a00-b80e-6202646ff360 (user: arthurcnorman@users.sourceforge.net, size: 7495) [annotate] [blame] [check-ins using] [more...]
,MOD - R 44X (11 April 1983) <PSL.NMODE-DOC>NM-METAX.ibm PLA 97_LAS 80 0_FIR 2_INT 1 6.0_TYP 160 163 162 193_INP 12 101_MAR 2 ,END ,PRO 201 OUT 160_202 OUT 163_203 OUT 162_204 OUT 193 205 INP 12 101_206 INP 12 102 ,END ,DEFINE UNIT SPACE FUNCTION ,END 201/NMODE Manual (Extended (Meta-X) Commands and Functions) Page 6-1 202/6. Extended (Meta-X) Commands and Functions 201/Not all NMODE commands are of the one or two character variety you have seen so far. Most commands have long invocations composed of English words. This is for two reasons: the long invocations are easier to remember and more suggestive, and there are not enough two-character combinations for every command to have one. The commands with long names are known as 202/extended commands 201/because they extend the set of two-character commands. 202/6.1 Issuing Extended Commands 201/M-X Begin an extended command. Follow by the command invocation only; the command will ask for any arguments. C-M-X Same as M-X. Extended commands are also called 202/M-X commands201/, because they all start with the character Meta-X (203/m-x-prefix201/). The M-X is followed by the command's long, suggestive invocation. The invocation is terminated with a Return. For example, Meta-X Auto Fill Mode<CR> invokes 203/auto-fill-mode-command201/. This function when executed turns Auto Fill mode on or off. There are a great many functions in NMODE for you to call. They will be described elsewhere in the manual, according to what they do. Here we are concerned only with extended commands in general. 202/6.1.1 Typing The Command Name 201/When you type M-X, the cursor moves down to the echo area at the bottom of the screen. "Extended Command:" is printed there, and when you type the command name it echoes there. This is known as 202/reading a line in the echo area201/. You can use any moving or deleting command (C-A, C-E, C-F, C-B , C-D, Backspace, etc.) to help construct the M-X command. A C-G cancels the whole M-X. These editing characters apply any time NMODE reads a line in the echo area, not just within M-X. The string "Extended Command:" which appears in the echo area is called a 202/prompt201/. The prompt always tells you what sort of argument is required and what it is going to be used for; "Extended Command:" means that you are inside of the command M-X, and should type the invocation of a function to be called. 202/6.1.2 Completion 201/You can abbreviate the name of the command, typing only the beginning of the name, as much as is needed to identify the command unambiguously. You can also use completion on the function name. This means that you type part of the command name, and NMODE visibly fills in the rest, or as much as can be determined from the part you have typed. 201/Page 6-2 NMODE Manual (Completion) You request completion by typing Return. For example, if you type M-X Au<CR>, the "Au" expands to "Auto Fill Mode" because "Auto Fill Mode" is the only command invocation that starts with "Au". If you ask for completion when there are several alternatives for the next character, the bell rings and nothing else happens. Space is another way to request completion, but it completes only one word. Successive Spaces complete one word each, until either there are multiple possibilities or the end of the name is reached. If the first word of a command is Edit, List, Kill, View or What, it is sufficient to type just the first letter and complete it with a Space. (This does not follow from the usual definition of completion, since the single letter is ambiguous; it is a special feature added because these words are so common). 202/6.2 Arcane Information about M-X Commands 201/You can skip this section if you are not interested in customization, unless you want to know what is going on behind the scenes. Actually, 203/every 201/command in NMODE simply runs a function. For example, when you type the command C-N, it runs the function "203/move-down-extending-command201/". C-N can be thought of as a sort of abbreviation. We say that the command C-N has been 202/connected 201/to the function 203/move-down-extending-command201/. The name is looked up once when the command and function are connected, so that it does not have to be looked up again each time the command is used. The documentation for individual NMODE commands usually gives the name of the function which really implements the command in parentheses after the command itself. Just as any function can be called directly with M-X, so almost any function can be connected to a command. You can use the command M-X Set Key (203/set-key-command201/) to do this. M-X Set Key reads the name of the function from the keyboard, then reads the character command (including metizers or other prefix characters) directly from the terminal. To define C-N, you could type M-X Set Key<CR>move-down-extending-command<CR> and then type C-N. If, for instance, you use the function 203/{auto-fill-mode-command} 201/often, you could connect it to the command C-X Z (not normally defined). You could even connect it to the command C-M-V, replacing that command's normal definition. Set Key is good for redefining commands in the middle of editing. An init file can do it each time you run NMODE. See Section 22.1 [Init], page 1.