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- R 44X (11 April 1983) <PSL.NMODE-DOC>NM-ARGUMENTS.ibm
PLA 97_LAS 80 0_FIR 2_INT 1 6.0_TYP 160 163 162 193_INP 12 101_MAR 2
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201 OUT 160_202 OUT 163_203 OUT 162_204 OUT 193
205 INP 12 101_206 INP 12 102
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UNIT SPACE
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201/NMODE Manual (Giving Numeric Arguments to NMODE Commands) Page 5-1
202/5. Giving Numeric Arguments to NMODE Commands
201/Any NMODE command can be given a 202/numeric argument201/. Some commands
interpret the argument as a repetition count. For example, giving an
argument of ten to the C-F command (move forward one character) moves
forward ten characters. With these commands, no argument is equivalent to
an argument of 1.
Some commands care only about whether there is an argument, and not
about its value; for example, the command M-Q (203/fill-paragraph-command201/) with
no arguments fills text, but with an argument justifies the text as well.
Some commands use the value of the argument, but do something peculiar
when there is no argument. For example, the C-K (203/kill-line201/) command with
an argument <n> kills <n> lines and the line separators that follow them. But
C-K with no argument is special; it kills the text up to the next line
separator, or, if point is right at the end of the line, it kills the line
separator itself. Thus, two C-K commands with no arguments can kill a
nonblank line, just like C-K with an argument of one.
The fundamental way of specifying an argument is to use the C-U
(203/universal-argument201/) command followed by the digits of the argument.
Negative arguments are allowed. Often they tell a command to move or act
backwards. A negative argument is entered with C-U followed by a minus
sign and the digits of the value of the argument. Another option for
entering arguments is to use C-digit or strings there of. This runs the
function 203/argument-digit 201/each time C-digit is entered. For example, C-U 1 2 3
does the same thing as C-1 C-2 C-3, both apply an argument of 123 to the
next command. Negative arguments can also be specified with C-- (C-minus)
which runs the function 203/negative-argument201/.
C-U followed by a character which is neither a digit nor a minus sign has
the special meaning of "multiply by four". It multiplies the argument for the
next command by four. Two such C-U's multiply it by sixteen. Thus, C-U
C-U C-F moves forward sixteen characters. This is a good way to move
forward "fast", since it moves about 1/4 of a line on most terminals. Other
useful combinations are C-U C-N, C-U C-U C-N (move down a good fraction
of a screen), C-U C-U C-O (make "a lot" of blank lines), and C-U C-K (kill
four lines). With commands like M-Q that care whether there is an argument
but not what the value is, C-U is a good way of saying "I want an
argument".
A few commands treat a plain C-U differently from an ordinary argument.
A few others may treat an argument of just a minus sign differently from an
argument of -1. These unusual cases will be described when they come up;
they are always for reasons of convenience of use.