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ECCE(1) 		   Contributed Software Manual			 ECCE(1)

NAME
     ecce -- Edinburgh Compatible Context Editor

SYNOPSIS
     ecce -from inputfile [-to outputfile] [-log logfile] [-size bytes]

DESCRIPTION
     ecce  is  a line-based text editor. It first appeared many years ago at the
     University of Edinburgh, and has been  re-implemented  many  times.   Thuis
     manual  page does not attempt to be an ecce tutorial; it merely details how
     to invoke ecce, and summarises the basic commands.  For more  details,  see
     the full documentation.

     When  invoking  ecce,  there  is no need to precede arguments with flags if
     they are given in the order shown above. If an  argument  is  omitted,  the
     next agument must be specified using the appropriate flag.

     To  create  a  new  file, an empty input file must be specified. A suitable
     file is /dev/null.

BASIC COMMANDS
     The operation of ecce is directed by a series of commands which  are  typed
     by  the user. Each command line consists of a single command, or a sequence
     of several commands terminated by a newline.  No command separator  is  re-
     quired  between  individual  commands, and unquoted spaces are not signifi-
     cant. The individual commands in a command sequence are executed from  left
     to  right. The basic editing commands consist of a letter, or a letter fol-
     lowed by a text string.  The letter is mnemonic for an imperative verb. The
     text string is any sequence  of  characters  (excluding  newline)	enclosed
     within  quotation marks. Any command may be followed by a repetition number
     to indicate that the command is to be executed  repeatedly  the  number  of
     times specified. Compound commands may be formed by enclosing a sequence of
     commands within parentheses.

   Editing commands
     In  the  following list, the Notes column indicates the notes pertaining to
     the particular command. These can indicate how a  command	can  `fail',  or
     other relevant information about the command.

	   Command											   EffectNotes
	   m{n} 											   move
									 to next
									 line											 1
	   m-{n}											   move
									 to
									 previous
									 line												 2
	   f{m}'....'{n}										   find
									 text												 3,10
	   s'....'											   substitute
									 text												 4
	   g{n} 											   get
									 line												 5
	   k{n} 											   kill
									 (delete)
									 whole
									 line											   1
	   i'....'{n}											   insert
									 text												 6
	   b												   break
									 line
									 (insert
									 newline)
	   d{m}'....'{n}										   delete
									 text												 3,7
	   j												   join
									 (delete
									 next
									 newline)										    6
	   p{n} 											   print
									 line												 1
	   r{n} 											   move
									 right												 8
	   l{n} 											   move
									 left												 9
	   e{n} 											   erase
									 right												 8
	   e-{n}											   erase
									 left												 9
	   t{m}'....'{n}										   traverse
									 text												 3,7
	   u{m}'....'{n}										   uncover
									 (delete
									 until)
									 text											  3,7
	   v'....'											   verify
									 (test
									 for)
     text

   Notes about commands
	   Note 	Information
	   1		file pointer at end of file
	   2		current line is first line of file
	   3		text not found
	   4		no text to replace
	   5		entered line begins with a:
	   6		current line too long
	   7		default scope is current line
	   8		file pointer at end of current line
	   9		file pointer at beginning of current line
	   10		default scope is rest of file

   Special commands
	   Command	 Effect
	   %a abort (abandon editing)
	   %c		 close (finish editing)
	   %v		 print the current version number of ecce

COMPOUND COMMANDS
     Sequences	of commands may be enclosed in parentheses to form compound com-
     mands.

     Commands may be repeated, unconditionally or conditionally.

     Operation Example	     Meaning/Effect
     0 or *		     indefinite repetition
			     (repeat until failure)"
	       r0	     move file pointer to end of line
	       (mr)0	     find first blank line
	       e-0	     erase backwards to start of line

     ?			     optional execution
			     (failure condition is ignored)
	       ((r61p)?m)0   print lines with more than 60 characters

     ,			     alternative execution
			     (if first fails, execute next etc.)
	       (r81lb,m)0    split lines with more than 80 characters
	       (f/print/(v/printstring/,e5i/write/))*
			     replace print by write except in printstring

     \			     inverted failure
	       (mv'+'\)0     find next line starting with `+'

     A command line consisting solely of a number repeats the  previous  command
     line the number of times specified.

     Patterns may be delimited by any character except letters, digits and those
     which have defined significance: for example, one can use:
     " / $ > + . : = _

FILES
     /tmp/eccesaveNNNNNN	Emergency save file. This is used when ecce can-
				not  write  to	the  original file being edited.
				NNNNNN is the zero-filled process ID.
     /tmp/eccenoteXNNNNNN	Context file. These are used  for  holding  sec-
				ondary	contexts,  and are not deleted when ecce
				exits. X is the context number,  and  NNNNNN  is
				the zero-filled process ID.

DIAGNOSTICS
     The ecce utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

SEE ALSO
     G. Toal, A quick guide to G.Toal's ECCE-in-C for existing ECCE users.

     Hamish Dewar, ECCE - revised specification, 1982.

     L.D. Smith, ECCE - The Edinburgh Compatible Context Editor, 1978.

     G. Toal, ECCE - a review.

     Note  that  only the first reference is definitive for this implementation,
     so some commands may be missing (or added) elsewhere.  However,  the  other
     documents may provide a good way of learning how to use ecce effectively.

AUTHORS
     This  implementation  is  by Graham Toal, of the Edinburgh Computer History
     Project. It is based on earlier implementations by H. Dewar, University  of
     Edinburgh, and H. Whitfield, University  of  Newcastle upon Tyne.

FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly     September 11, 2016			 ECCE(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ecce&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.1.quarterly>

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