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Have you heard about EVE?! No? Well, you're not alone: EVE (Extensible Versatile Editor) seems to be one of the best-kept secrets on the VAX. However, that is about to change and we anticipate that many users will join the handful of people who have been enjoying this powerful, yet user-friendly, text editor. Here are some of the things you can do with EVE:

• Create or edit more than one file in an editing session
• Use multiple buffers and windows, and resize the windows
• Select boxes and linear ranges for cut-and-paste and other operations
• Use wildcards to search text
• Execute DCL commands, such as directory, from within the editor
• Spawn subprocesses, such as mail, or attach to other processes
• Define keys, sequences and margins to customize your editing environment
• Compile and execute TPU procedures to extend EVE
• Edit files with lines up to 65535 characters long
• Use an EDT or WPS keypad instead of EVE's default keypad
• Get on-line help for commands, keys and other topics

How to Use EVE

Interested? Good! We're going to tell you everything you need to know to get started!

Opening a File

To edit a file with EVE, use the edit command. For example, to create a file named zucchini.txt, you would type the following at the $ prompt and press [return]:

     edit/tpu zucchini.txt

Once EVE starts up (which may take a few seconds), you'll find yourself in full-screen insert mode, and you can begin typing.

Using the EVE Keypad

To obtain help and to use all those wonderful EVE features, use the keypad on the far right of the main keyboard. The most important keypad key is the DO key, found in the upper-right hand corner of the keypad. This key is labelled as PF4 on VT100-series keyboards. (If you have a PC, it is the key marked with a dash (-); on Macintosh keyboards, it is labelled with an asterisk (*).) Note: If your keypad gets different results, call Microcomputer Support at 6315 for help with your terminal emulation package.

Pressing the DO key will cause a command: prompt to appear at the bottom of your screen. Once the command: prompt appears, you can get help by typing HELP and pressing [return]. You can enter other EVE commands at the command: prompt too. For example, if you wanted to center the current line of text, you would press the DO key, type CENTER LINE, and press [return].

Many EVE commands can also be invoked simply by using the keypad. To see a diagram of these keypad shortcuts, press the PF2 key (or a forward slash (/) on PCs and an equal sign (=) on Macs).

Exiting EVE

When you are ready to save your work and exit EVE, press the DO key, type EXIT, and press [return]. If you'd rather not save your changes, type QUIT instead of EXIT.

Good News for EDT Users

If you are currently using EDT, you are probably thinking, "This sounds great, but I'm used to using the EDT keypad and don't want to learn a new keypad layout." Well, you're in luck -- it's easy to get EVE to automatically use an EDT-like keypad. All you need to do is create a file named eve$init.eve that contains the following line:

     set keypad edt

then add the following line to your login.com file:

     $ define eve$init eve$init.eve

After you log in again, almost everything on the keypad will work like it does in EDT. The only new key you'll need to learn is the DO key equivalent, which is GOLD-7 (i.e. press PF1 or NUMLOCK, and then 7 on the keypad). So, for example, to save your work and exit EVE, you would press GOLD-7 (to get the command: prompt), type EXIT, and press [return].

Note: Pressing CTRL-Z will not give you an asterisk prompt like in EDT; it will exit EVE.

For More Information

If you want more information, call Barbara Goodson (3984) or pick up any of these handouts in CH215 or CH313:

• Beginning to Use EVE
• Beginning to Use EVE for EDT Users
• Customizing Your EVE Editing Environment.