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   Thank  you  for your interest in SED, the screen editor. Here is
your tape back.

                                NOTE

   This  is  the  first  release  of  a  new  version of SED, which
includes many new features and a couple of  new  commands  (JUSTIFY
and MARKER). I will eventually replace the old version with the new
one  and  distribute  only  the  former, but for the time being, to
guard against my carelessness, I am distributing the old SED  files
(which  are  up-to-date  in  bug  fixes  but  are  missing  the new
features) as the save set EDITOR, and the new SED files as the save
set NEWSED. Hopefully NEWSED contains everything you need  and  you
can ignore EDITOR. But if a file is missing on NEWSED you will find
it in EDITOR.

   Also, if the stuff in NEWSED doesn't work you  can  always  drop
back  to  EDITOR and be better off than you were before you got the
tape. But the NEWSED version has been running at Digital for  close
to a year now, so it should be reliable.

   At the end of this note is a partial list of the new features in
NEWSED.  If  you  want to know *everything* that's been done to it,
see SED.SHF.


                    WHAT THE TAPE IS LIKE

   The tape is in BACKUP/DUMPER interchange format, 9 track, either
1600 or 800 BPI. If you didn't say what you wanted, it's 1600.

   If  you  are a TOPS-10 site you might "size copy error" messages
when reading the tape. You can ignore them. The tape was written on
a TOPS-20 system, and DUMPER doesn't save the file  size  correctly
sometimes. But the tape reads O.K. despite the complaint.

   The  tape contains not only editor files, but also a binary file
editor, a couple of  disassemblers,  and  an  improved  version  of
RUNOFF. The binary editor looks at a file as a stream of data words
and  can  do  SOS-like things to it. The disassemblers are programs
which convert from .REL and .EXE  files  to  MACRO.  I've  included
RUNOFF  mainly  because  it  must  be  used  to  generate  the  SED
documentation if you change it. It's also the best RUNOFF I've seen
(with good documentation, too).

   There  are  ten  save  sets  on  the tape, named NEWSED, EDITOR,
BITED, DISASS,  RUNOFF,  NEWSED1,  EDITOR1,  BITED1,  DISASS1,  and
RUNOFF1.  The  second  five  are  copies of the first five, in case
there are errors on the tape.


                 WHAT THE EDITOR FILES ARE LIKE

   The  editor  save  sets  (NEWSED and EDITOR) contain all the SED
files that exist. The file SED.DIR  is  a  directory  and  a  brief
description  of each of those files. If you are unfamiliar with SED
I recommend  that  you  print  and  read  the  documentation  files
SED.MEM,  SED.MAN,  and SED.DOC, which are the installation manual,
the tutorial guide, and the reference manual.

   You can catch up on the latest developments by reading  SED.SHF,
the  edit history file. If you know the edit level of your previous
version you can find out exactly what  has  been  done  since  that
version  by  looking  at the edits which are greater than that edit
level.

   Before you assemble SED there is a switch that you need to think
about. If you are running TOPS-10  and  you  have  never  seen  SED
before,  those  switches are set correctly already, so you can skip
these two paragraphs. If you  are  running  TOPS-20  then  look  in
SEDSYM.MAC for the line

        TOPS10==1

and  set  the  "1"  to a "0". This will give you JSYS monitor calls
instead of UUO's.


                        GENERATING SED

   The  next  step  is to generate an editor which will run of your
terminals. Log into the area which contains the  SED  source  files
(*.MAC)  and SED.CMD. If you have a terminal or terminals which are
defined in SEDTTY.MAC then the job is almost  done:  just  set  the
switch(es) for your terminal(s) at the start of SEDTTY and type the
following commands:

    TOPS10:                         TOPS20:

        .COM SEDSYM                     @COM SEDSYM
        .LOA @SED                       @LOA @SED
        .SS SED                         @SAVE SED

and  you're in business. NOTE: The order of the files is important:
If you don't use SED.CMD  to  load  SED,  make  sure  the  terminal
dependent file is the first one loaded.

   For  other  terminals,  see the installation guide, SED.MEM, and
the file SEDTTY.MAC.


                  GENERATING THE DOCUMENTATION

   SED.MAN  and  SED.DOC  are  the tutorial guide and the reference
manual, respectively. The former contains step-by-step instructions
for learning SED; the latter describes all of SED's features  (many
more  than  does  the  tutorial),  but  is  hard to read unless you
already know how to use the editor.

   Both  manuals  are  programmable  by the installer; that is, the
terminal keys which invoke the commands can be  easily  changed  to
reflect  any  desired  layout.  They currently reflect the keyboard
layout of a VT52 and/or VT100 on a TOPS10 system.  If  that's  what
you want you can use then as is.

   If you want to generate TOPS-20 documentation, run SEDRNO (which
is a version of RUNOFF) and type:

        RU SEDRNO
        *SED.RND/VAR:TOPS20/CR
        *SED.RNM/VAR:TOPS20/CR
        *

   If  you  want  to  change  ("program")  the  documentation so it
reflects the keyboard layout of your favorite  terminal,  read  the
RUNOFF  documentation  on  macros,  and re-define the macros at the
start of SED.RND and SED.RNM. Then run SEDRNO  and  re-compile  the
two documents (using the /VAR:TOPS20 switch for TOPS-20 and the /CR
switch for either operating system).


   A VERY IMPORTANT POINT THAT'S PROBABLY UNDEREMPHASIZED

   If  your  terminal runs at 9600 baud you may be plagued by XON's
and XOFF's (Control-Q's and Control-S's sent by the  terminal).  If
the  terminal  thinks it's receiving data faster than it can handle
it, it might send an XOFF to the driving program, and then  an  XON
when it is ready again. Unfortunately, it is very difficult for SED
to  distinguish  these terminal-sent characters from the user-typed
commands Control-S and Control-Q.

   If your terminal sends XON's and XOFF's, I  recommend  that  you
set  the  NPG flag in the terminal output table, which will disable
Control-Q and Control-S as commands. Those two  control  characters
then  cannot  be  used  by  SED.  This will let XON's and XOFF's be
handled by the monitor, which will process them  properly.  If  all
this  is  confusing,  well,  read SED.MEM, which will tell you what
it's all about.


                      KEYBOARD LAYOUT FILES

   A  few  terminal  configurations  have  keyboard  layout  files,
SED???.KYS,  which  contain  a  lineprinter  picture  of  how SED's
commands are laid out on that terminal. Usually there are two  sets
of  layouts,  with  and  without NPG set (to handle XON and XOFF as
described in the previous section). The difference between the  two
layouts  is  that some commands are moved around to make up for the
loss of Control-S and Control-Q.


   If you have any comments, suggestions, or complaints, please let
me know.





                                      Mark Pratt
                                      MRO1-2/L10
                                      Digital Equipment Corp.
                                      200 Forest Street
                                      Marlborough, Mass   01752

                             POSTSCRIPT
              (PARTIAL) LIST OF NEW FEATURES IN NEWSED

o New commands:
	<JUSTIFY> (fill, nofill, or center - see switches below).
	<MARKER>  Marks places in files to return to them easily.
		  Also, keeps a stack of "interesting" former locations.
o New switches:
    /FILL       set FILL/NOFILL for JUSTIFY
    /PIND:n     set JUSTIFY's paragraph indentation
    /JPRE:s     set JUSTIFY's line prefix
    /EXT:e1,e2  set the default extension table to be e1,e2
    /FENCE      set up normal e-o-file fence. /NOFENCE sets up a short one.
    /SCROLL     allow CURSOR-UP and -DOWN to scroll the screen
    /SLIDE:n    set default slide amount to n
    /GREAD      treat every file edited as read-only
    /MESSAG     suppress the initial and "this file is..." messages
    /TRAIL	/TRAIL prevents trailing spaces and tabs from
		being deleted when the file is saved (Note: don't
		set /TRAIL as your default; use it for exceptions).
    /DELIM:     declares a set of additional delimiters for word-wise
		tabs (#).
o Other:
    If /READ is set, don't ever save the file.
    Remember the setting of /READ across editing sessions.
    Delete the journal on a successful exit.
    Allow <ENTER><REWRITE> to rewrite the screen centering the
      line the cursor is on.
    Allow /TSET: to take multiple arguments. /TSET:4,12,50 sets
      three tabs, at the given columns.
    Successive <DELETE-LINES>s append to the delete buffer.
    Make /ID:s1,s2 start the ID line with comment string s1 and
      optionally end with string s2.
    /NOMESS suppresses the "Parm defined by cursor movement" message,
	in addition to suppressing the cheery message.
    When running SED or setting to a new file, the names of the current
	and alternate file are displayed on the bottom line.