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                Differences Between ANTE and TENEX TECO



     ANTE (A Nother Text Editor) combines features from  the  TENEX  and
TOPS-10 versions of TECO with some new features.  The major new features
are:  automatic V after most commands (see  V),  word-oriented  commands
(see  N,  O,  ^L,  ^N,  ^W),  multiple editing environments (see A), and
two-pass command processing (see B).  This note  describes  the  program
for TENEX and TOPS-20 TECO users who wish to try ANTE as an alternative.

o Starting ANTE

  On TENEX and some TOPS-20 systems, ANTE can  be  invoked  to  edit  an
  existing file by saying
       @ANTE <filename>
  and other TOPS-20 systems by
       @R ANTE!<filename>
  ANTE also supports the DEFINE EDITOR:  feature found on some  versions
  of TOPS-20.


o Special Functions of Control Characters

  ^A deletes the last character in the input command stream.

  ^C during command execution will stop the  command  and  exit  to  the
     monitor.   The  command can be resumed by CONtinuing, or aborted by
     REEntering, which returns ANTE to command input level.

  ^E retypes the command stream from the beginning, even if longer  than
     one line.

  ^F saves the command stream when typed twice in  succession,  so  that
     the command stream may be recovered with the B command.

  ^G deletes the command stream when typed twice in succession.

  ^H (BACK SPACE) operates as in TECO.

  ^L at the beginning  of  a  command  stream  moves  the  text  pointer
     backward one word, equivalent to -NV$$.

  ^N at the beginning of a command stream moves the text pointer forward
     one word, equivalent to NV$$.

  ^R operates as in TECO.  Typing any character will resume it.

  ^U deletes the current line.

  ^W deletes the previous word in the command stream.

  ^V inserts the character following into  the  command  stream  without
     giving it special interpretation.

Differences Between ANTE and TENEX TECO                           Page 2


  $  (ESCAPE)  terminates  string  arguments,  and  two  in   succession
     terminate a command stream.

  ^^ (CONTROL UP ARROW), when the first character of a  command  stream,
     causes a -LV$$ to be performed, similar to ^H.

  LINE FEED operates as in TECO.

  RUBOUT is equivalent to ^A.


o Differences in Commonly Used Commands

  R  operates as in TECO, except that, given a numeric  argument  n,  it
     replaces  only  the  n-th  instance  of  the  given  string,  not n
     instances.  FS is equivalent to R in TECO.

  S  is similar to the Search command in TECO.   The  major  differences
     are:  (1) An unsuccessful search always causes exit of an enclosing
     iteration; no ";" is needed, although one may be  included  without
     harm.   (2)  There  is just one wild card search character in ANTE,
     ^X, which works the same as in TECO.  (3) If S is the last  command
     in  the  command  stream, a multiple search, i.e., nS, for |n| > 1,
     causes a V command to be simulated after each  intermediate  match,
     displaying  the context.  (4) Backward search differs slightly from
     the way it is performed in TECO and by R, backing up one  character
     before attempting its first match.

  V  operates as in TECO, except that it prints a  string  at  the  text
     pointer  position.   The string is initially set to '~', but can be
     changed with the FV command.   The  string  can  be  from  0  to  9
     characters long.

     V also takes an optional second argument.  A value of 1 causes  all
     control characters (including escape and line feed) to be converted
     to printing characters or strings.

     After each command stream that does not end by printing  something,
     ANTE simulates a V command to show the user the context of the text
     pointer.  Initially the simulated command is equivalent to 1V,  but
     the  size of the window can be changed by executing wFW, where w is
     an integer.  If w is 0, no automatic context typeout will occur.


o Basic New Commands

  ;H is replaced by EE.

  ;S is replaced by EW, which takes as a string argument the name of the
     file  to  be written.  The default name is the last one given to an
     I/O command in that editing environment.  File name  completion  is
     not employed.

  ;Y is replaced by ER, the format of which is like EW.

Differences Between ANTE and TENEX TECO                           Page 3


  A  changes the editing environment to the q-register it  takes  as  an
     argument,  after which all commands operate on the q-register as if
     it were the main text buffer.  In fact, the  main  text  buffer  is
     nothing  but  a  q-register  with  the  name  '*'.   The FQ command
     displays the status of all active q-registers.

  B  saves the last command stream.  When a mistake is made in a command
     stream  it is convenient to repair it and try again.  The B command
     puts the last command stream into the q-register  it  takes  as  an
     argument,  where it can be edited using A and executed using M.  If
     the q-register given to B is the one  curently  being  edited,  the
     command  stream  is  inserted at the pointer position.  This is for
     the case when an insertion is intended and the prefatory I  command
     is omitted.

     The usefulness of the B command is aided by a preliminary pass ANTE
     makes  over  the command stream.  If any syntactic errors are found
     nothing is executed.

  EX is equivalent to EW followed by EE.

  N  is a positioning command analogous to  C,  except  that  it  counts
     words as it moves, instead of characters.  A word to ANTE is either
     a  string  of  letters  and/or  digits,  or  a  single  punctuation
     character  (any  printing  character  besides  letters and digits).
     Other characters, such as spaces, TABs, and line  terminators,  are
     skipped.

  O  is a delete command that counts words.  It is to D and K as N is to
     C and L.


o Some Other Useful New Commands

  EP takes a q-register and a file name string as  arguments,  and  puts
     the file into the q-register.

  FG prints the contents a q-register.

  FI converts a number to a character and inserts it.

  FM copies the contents of one q-register to another.

  FP and FX are like P and X,  but  they  insert  into  the  destination
     q-register, rather than replacing its contents.

  P  is used to Put text into a Q-register and works like the X command,
     except that it does not delete text.

  W  produces useful saved pointer positions:  WB returns  the  position
     before the last search, WI returns the position of the beginning of
     the last insert, and WS returns the position of  the  beginning  of
     the last successful search match string.