Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ncis.llnl.gov!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!ucsd!orion.cf.uci.edu!elroy!gryphon!cadovax!kaz
From: kaz@cadovax.UUCP (Kerry Zimmerman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Cygnus macros from ARexx
Summary: Can you define CED macros from ARexx?
Keywords: CED ARexx macros
Message-ID: <2323@cadovax.UUCP>
Date: 23 Jan 89 19:39:30 GMT
Reply-To: kaz@cadovax.UUCP (Kerry Zimmerman)
Organization: Contel Business Systems, Torrance, CA
Lines: 55

[ an extra line a day keeps the line-eater away ]

I recently purchased Cygnus Professional to have another "ARexxable"
program.  My fingers are so used to 'vi' that I decided to program a series
of macros to allow a 'vi'-like interface to CED.  I realize that this is
not totally possible because the normal keyboard keys without ctrl or alt
cannot be used as the first character of a CED macro.  But, I thought I
would use a control key for the first character of a 'vi' sequence.  For
example, "ctrl-d w" for vi's "dw" (delete word) command.

Anyway, I decided this project would make an interesting ARexx script.
I could just use something like the following for each macro I wanted.

   address 'rexx_ced'

   /* dw to delete a word */
   'beg/end definition' text 'ctrl-d y w n' 'delete word'
   'beg/end definition'

   /* d$ to delete to EOL */
   'beg/end definition' text 'ctrl-d y $ n' 'delete to EOL'
   'beg/end definition'
      ...
      ...
      etc
   
The resulting ARexx script would create my macros, and also serve as
documentation for the macros.

Bottom line is I can't make it work.  As soon as CED sees the 
'beg/end definition' it stops and waits for me to enter the first key
of the macro rather than taking it from my ARexx script.  I tried all
kinds of things to make CED see the characters following the 'beg/end
definition', but nothing worked.  Does anyone see how I can make this
work?

If the above cannot be done, I thought of another solution.  I could
write an ARexx script to generate a macro file, just like the file
created by CED after doing a 'save definitions'.  Problem here is
trying to reverse engineer the macro file.  If anyone can tell me the
format of a macro file, I would be very appreciative.  I plan on
creating a program to list each defined macro.   Maybe a macro editor
too.  These would be neat utilities.

I had a similar problem with a short ARexx script that I wanted to set
a new 'set timer' value with.  CED would not take the timer value from
the script, but instead would stop and wait for me to enter a timer
value.  How can I make this work?

Thanks in advance for anyone's help.

Kerry Zimmerman
#  {ucbvax,decvax}!trwrb!cadovax!kaz  VERSYSS Corporation 213-323-8170
A difference between an amateur and a professional, 
is that a professional has the right tools.