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the(1)				   THE Manual				  the(1)

NAME
     the - The Hessling Editor

SYNTAX
     the [ options ] [ filename [ directory ]]

DESCRIPTION
     THE  is a text editor that uses both command line commands and key bindings
     to operate. It is intended to be similar to the VM/CMS System Product  Edi-
     tor, XEDIT and to KEDIT from Mansfield Software.

     THE  was  originally written to be used by people already familiar with the
     above editors. For this reason, the documentation provides limited informa-
     tion on using THE, and concentrates more on  reference  material,	such  as
     command syntax and configuration.

OPTIONS
     -n     Run  THE  without  any profile. Normally THE tries to find a profile
	    file and execute this on startup. This switch suppresses that search
	    and execute and runs THE in its default mode. This switch is  useful
	    for  determining  if a bug in THE occurs only with certain user-spe-
	    cific customisations.

     -m     On ports of THE that support colour, this  switch  forces  THE  into
	    monochrome mode. More a testing feature than a user feature.

     -r     This  switch  enables  THE to be run in readonly mode.  In this mode
	    commands that alter the contents of a file are invalid.

     -s     On Unix platforms, this switch enables the writing of a core file if
	    THE crashes.  Normally, THE traps  any  internal  errors  and  exits
	    gracefully.   This	switch	is  a testing feature rather than a user
	    feature.

     -b     When you want to use THE as a non-interactive tool for  manipulating
	    the contents of one or more files, this switch will disable any dis-
	    play  of  file  contents  and disable keyboard interaction. Normally
	    used in conjunction with a specific profile; see -p option.

     -q     Run quietly in batch mode. This will suppress the  introductory  in-
	    formative  message	displayed when errors are encountered running in
	    batch.

     -k[fmt]Allows 'soft label keys'. This allows the display of  one  (or  two)
	    lines at the bottom of the screen with 'buttons' intended to be used
	    to	represent  function keys. These 'soft label keys' can be manipu-
	    lated with the <SET SLK> command.  The 'fmt' optional extra argument
	    is a single digit representing the format  of  the	display  of  the
	    'buttons'.

	     1 - displays 8 'buttons' in a 4-4 layout
	     2 - displays 8 'buttons' in a 3-2-3 layout
	     3 - displays 12 'buttons' in a 4-4-4 layout
	     4 - displays 12 'buttons' in a 4-4-4 layout with an index line
	     5 - displays 10 'buttons' in a 5-5 layout

	    Not  all  platforms support all 5 format options.  On those ports of
	    THE that are mouse-aware, the mouse can be pressed	on  a  'button',
	    and  the command assigned the the corresponding function key is exe-
	    cuted.

     -l     This switch specifies the line  number  to	make  current  when  THE
	    starts.

     -c     This  switch  specifies  the  column number to make current when THE
	    starts.

     -p     Specifies the THE profile to run instead of the default profile.

     -a     Specifies the arguments that are passed  to  the  profile  specified
	    with the -p switch.

     -w     Specifies the maximum line width for a line in the current edit ses-
	    sion. Can be overridden with the <SET WIDTH> command.

     -u     THE  can run as a binary editor. Specifying this switch tells THE to
	    read in the file and display it in 'lines' that are ignored and  are
	    treated as other characters in the file.

     -X     With  the  X11  port  of THE, standard X11 switches can be specified
	    with this switch to dynamically configure the way  THE  displays  or
	    behaves.   You  can  also  specify XCurses-specific switches here as
	    well.  For more information on the XCurses switches available,  con-
	    sult the PDCurses documentation.

     -1     Tells  THE	to  run in 'Single Instance Mode'. The first time THE is
	    run with the -1 switch, it starts as normal.  Subsequent  executions
	    of THE with the -1 command-line switch will not start a new instance
	    of	THE,  rather  it will edit the file(s) specified on the command-
	    line in the currently running instance of THE.  This feature is cur-
	    rently only available with the X11 port of the using XCurses 2.5 and
	    greater.  If the first instance of THE with the  -1  switch  crashes
	    for  any  reason,  subsequent attempts to run THE with the -1 switch
	    will hang.	To fix this remove the file (really a FIFO); $HOME/.the-
	    fifo and then run THE with the -1 switch again.

AUTHOR
     Mark Hessling, <mark@rexx.org>

COPYRIGHT
     Copyright (C) 1991-2013 Mark Hessling.  The Hessling Editor is  distributed
     under  the  GNU  General  Public License, See the file `COPYING-LIB' in the
     source code distribution.

WWW
     http://hessling-editor.sourceforge.net

REPORTING BUGS
     Report bugs to http://hessling-editor.sourceforge.net/bugs

THE Manual			    June 2013				  the(1)
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