Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!att-ih!alberta!ubc-cs!van-bc!root
From: lphillips@lpami.van-bc.UUCP (Larry Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: TxEd plus, ARP, and Arexx hints
Message-ID: <1715@van-bc.UUCP>
Date: 17 Apr 88 02:20:33 GMT
Sender: root@van-bc.UUCP
Lines: 76

[ line eater sacrificial offering ]

ralph@mit-atrp.UUCP (Ralph L. Vinciguerra) writes:
 > I have just received TxEd Plus and am very pleased.

Mine was sent Thursday, so the Canadian mail system should get it here by
the end of the month, if I'm lucky. (I just received a postal workers
newsletter addressed to a house about 3 blocks away. :-) )

 > If you want a new text file to edit, first use the workbench to duplicate
 > an existing text object, rename it, and start TxEd by double clicking it.
 > I successfully use the VT100 emulator this way. Before I download, I pop
 > out to the workbench and create blank files with icons first.

For creating blank files, here is an ARexx version of 'touch', that acts like
the UN*X 'touch'. If the file does not already exist, it is created as an empty
file. It's relatively easy to add the capability to copy a suitable icon to
represent the created file. You could also use an ARexx program to add an icon
to any or all files found in a directory, probably callable from TxED through
its ARexx interface. (guesswork until I get mine)

-------------- buzz saw goes here ---------------

/* touch -- set the date or time of a file. Calls setdate. If the file does
            not exist, creates it as an empty file */
parse arg x
if index(x,'*') >0 | index(x,'#?') >0 | index(x,'?') >0 | index(x,'|') >0 then
 do
 setdate x
 end
else
 if exists(word(x,1)) then setdate x
else
 do
 scratch = open(dummy,x,'w')
 scratch = close(dummy)
 end

------------- buzz saw switch off ---------------

 >   These problems I mention in the above programs are small ones, which are
 > EASILY worked around, and I must say that at this point I'm WILD about
 > using these programs constantly.

Glad to hear it, though it will make waiting all the more difficult. I get
constant use out of a few utilities written in ARexx, and am, in fact, using
one right now to post this message....

 > The TxEd to ARexx macro capability is great, I hope SuperBase adds a port.
 > Maybe a news reader could be created....download the days news while you
 > have dinner and read at high speed later that night.....

A news reader is somtehing that should be fairly simple. The ARexx program I am
using to post this is a bit kludgy, as it uses TxED (not TxED Plus), which of
course does not have an ARexx interface. It looks in a specified directory,
finds any files called 'answer.nn', where nn is 2 digit number. It then makes a
corresponding copy of each 'answer.nn' to 'mail.nn', and calls TxED with
'mail.nn' as a command line argument. When I have hacked and slashed all the
extraneous stuff out, written my response, and saved the file, the ARexx
program searches through the saved file and extracts the Newsgroup and subject,
and calls the mail program with all the necessary parameters. Not elegant, but
workable. One of the first priorities when TxED Plus arrives is to write a
proper readnews program complete with keep, discard, reply, include, etc.

> Ralph

-larry

--
Janus? Well, look at it this way. If you squint a little, the J could be
       Amiga checkmark, and the rest of the word describes MsDos.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+ 
|   //   Larry Phillips                                          |
| \X/    {ihnp4!alberta!ubc-vision,uunet}!van-bc!lpami!lphillips |
|        COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322                                  |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+