dxnotepad(1X) dxnotepad(1X)
Name
dxnotepad - DECwindows text editor
Syntax
dxnotepad [ options ] [ file ]
Arguments
file Specifies a file to open at startup. If you omit the file name, you can open or create a file from within dxnotepad.
Description
The dxnotepad command displays a window in which you can edit a file or a text buffer that you can later save as a file. At startup, the
dxnotepad window consists of the following three areas:
Title Bar Displays the name of the window, the name of the file currently being edited, and window manager buttons that move and
resize the window and shrink the window to an icon. For more information, see
Menu Bar Lists the available dxnotepad menus.
Edit Window Displays the text that you are editing or creating.
Options
-bd color Specifies the color of the window's border (color displays only). The default is specified by means of the Session
Manager's Customize Window dialog box.
-bg color Specifies the color of the window's background (color displays only). The default is specified by means of the Session
Manager's Customize Window dialog box.
-d dispname Specifies the display screen on which dxnotepad displays its window. If the display option is not specified, dxnotepad
uses the display screen specified by your DISPLAY environment variable. The display option has the format host-
name:number. Using two colons (::) instead of one (:) indicates that DECnet is to be used for transport. The default
is :0. For more information, see
-display dispname s the same as the -d option.
-fg color Specifies the color of the text in digital mode and the color of the tick marks in analog mode (color displays only).
The default is specified by means of the Session Manager's Customize Window dialog box.
-fn font Specifies the font used as the output font in digital mode. Any fixed-width font can be used. The default is 6x10.
-geometry Specifies the width, length, and location of the dxnotepad window. If the geometry argument is not specified,
dxnotepad uses default values. The geometry option has the format [widthxlength][{+-}x{+-}y]. For more information
about the screen coordinate system, see
Menus
The dxnotepad window contains the following menus:
File
Edit
Search
Navigate
Customize
File Menu
The File menu contains the following items:
New Creates a new dxnotepad window.
Open... Displays a dialog box that lets you specify the file to open.
Open Selected Opens the file whose name has been selected in any application window on the screen.
Include... Displays a dialog box that lets you specify a file to write into the current buffer. The included file appears at
the cursor's current position.
Save Saves the contents of the Edit window in a file. If the file is untitled when Save is selected, dxnotepad dis-
plays a dialog box that prompts for the file name.
Save As... Automatically displays a dialog box that prompts for the file name under which to save the contents of the buffer.
Revert Cancels all edits made since the last time dxnotepad saved edits. Edits are saved when you choose the Save menu
item from the File menu and when you exit from an editing session.
Quit Ends the current editing session without saving changes and closes the dxnotepad window.
Exit Ends the current editing session, saving the modified text in the output file.
Edit Menu
The Edit menu contains the following items:
Undo Undoes the last edit. Each time you select this menu item, each previous edit is undone.
Redo Redoes the last edit. Each time you select this menu item, each edit that has been undone is redone.
Undo... Displays the Undo dialog box that allows you to undo and redo sequences of edits.
Cut Removes text selected in the Edit window and moves it to the clipboard. This text can be retrieved with the Paste
menu item.
Copy Copies text selected from the Edit window to the text buffer. You can retrieve this text with the Paste menu item.
Paste Inserts text previously cut or copied to the clipboard.
Clear Deletes selected text without copying it to the clipboard.
Select All Marks the entire buffer as the current selection, as if you had selected it with the mouse and pointer.
Filter Selection... Displays a dialog box in which you can specify an ULTRIX command through which to process selected text. The com-
mand operates on the text and writes the output to the original location in the buffer. You can specify multiple
commands, using semicolons and pipes as you would on a command line. You can also select a blank area and specify
a command that produces output without requiring input. Note that, as usual, writing into a selection area
replaces the selection.
Fill Reorganizes selected text so that the maximum number of whole words fits within a 72 character line width, insert-
ing carriage return characters at the end of each 72-character line. If your dxnotepad window width is less than
72 characters, the fill operation can leave some lines broken, where the carriage return occurs.
Sort Sorts the selected text in ascending alphanumeric order, as if by executing the ULTRIX sort command.
Indent+4 Moves the left margin for a selected block of text four columns to the right.
Indent-4 Moves the left margin for a selected block of text four columns to the left.
Search Menu
The Search menu contains the following items:
Next Selected Searches from the current insertion point to the end of the file for the next occurrence of a string selected from
any window on the screen.
Previous Selected Searches from the current insertion point to the beginning of the file for the next occurrence of a string
selected from any window on the screen.
Next... Displays a dialog box that prompts for a search string. The Next button finds the next occurrence of the string
(moving forward); the Previous button finds the previous occurrence of the string (moving backward). The default
direction is forward.
Previous... Displays a dialog box that prompts for a search string. The Next button finds the next occurrence of the string
(moving forward); the Previous button finds the previous occurrence of the string (moving backward). The default
direction is backward.
Next Incremental... Searches from the initial search position to the bottom of the buffer for a string of characters. You can change
the search string during the operation; each time you add or delete a character, dxnotepad returns to the initial
position and highlights the next occurrence of the pattern now specified.
Previous Incremental... Searches from the initial search position to the top of the buffer for a string of characters. You can change the
search string during the operation; each time you add or delete a character, dxnotepad returns to the initial
position and highlights the next occurrence of the pattern now specified.
Replace Once... Displays a dialog box in which you enter an existing string and the string that you want to substitute. Searching
from the insertion point forward, dxnotepad finds the next occurrence of the existing string. Click on the Yes
button to replace the string and move to the next occurrence; click on the No button to skip to the next occur-
rence without making the replacement.
Replace Within Selected Area
Displays a dialog box in which you enter an existing string and the string that you want to substitute. The oper-
ation replaces all occurrences of the string within a selected block of text.
Replace All... Displays a dialog box in which you enter an existing string and the string that you want to substitute. The oper-
ation replaces all occurrences of the string in the buffer.
Navigate Menu
The Navigate menu contains the following items:
Go to Top Moves the cursor to the top of the buffer.
Go to Bottom Moves the cursor to the bottom of the buffer.
Go to Selected Line Number
Moves the cursor to the line whose number has been selected somewhere on the screen.
Split View Divides the current view of the file into two views of that file. The first time you use this option, it splits
the window into two views. Each view has its own scroll bars, so that you can work with two sections of the file
at once. Further splits affect the view in which the cursor is active.
Delete View Removes the view in which the cursor is active.
Customize Menu
The Customize menu contains the following items:
Case Sensitive Searches Specifies whether dxnotepad distinguishes between uppercase and lowercase occurrences of text characters when
searching for a string. When the button is set to On, a search finds all occurrences of a character. When the
button is set to Off, a search finds only occurrences whose case matches the case in which you enter the search
string.
Word Wrap Specifies whether dxnotepad automatically starts a new line when you reach the right margin. When the button is
set to On, word wrapping is automatic. When the button is set to Off, you must press the Return key at the end
of each line. Note that dxnotepad does not insert carriage return characters as it wraps the line; with word wrap-
ping on, you can create a line that looks like a paragraph in your dxnotepad edit window, but that a printer
interprets as a single long line.
Font Displays a dialog box in which you choose font attributes and see a sample of the resulting font; the Apply button
applies the font you select to your buffer.
Save Attributes Saves the values that you specified for options on the Customize menu. These values are stored in the file
.notepad.dat in your home directory; they will be used the next time you invoke dxnotepad.
Restore Attributes Restores the last saved values for options on the Customize menu.
Journals
The dxnotepad editor records your edits in a journal file. When you save the file you are editing, the journal file is deleted. If an
editing session terminates unexpectedly (due to a system crash, for example), the edits recorded in the journal file can be restored.
When you attempt to edit a file whose journal file still exists, the Recover dialog box asks whether to apply the previous edits to the
input file. Click on the OK button to restore the edits; click on the No button to forego applying the edits and delete the journal file.
If an editing session is interrupted before you have saved the editing buffer as a file and assigned it a file name, dxnotepad assigns the
journal file under a name based on your process number, with the suffix JNL (unless you have changed the default name, using a dxnotepad
resource).
To recover, first locate the journal file. You can recognize it in your directory because it has the form of AAAXXXXXXCCC, where AAA is
your journalNamePrefix, XXXXXX is a unique number for this session (derived from your process ID), and CCC is your journalNameSuffix.
Invoke dxnotepad, specifying an input file whose name is the number portion of the default journal file name. A dialog box asks whether to
recover the crashed session. To restore the edits, answer yes.
For information about specifying the journalNamePrefix and the journalNameSuffix, see the X DEFAULTS section.
Restrictions
Large numbers of certain edit functions tend to degrade performance over time. If there is a noticeable decrease in response time, save
the file; saving a file resets dxnotepad's internal state.
X Defaults
The dxnotepad application uses the values in the .Xdefaults file when you logged in and uses the appropriate resource specification values
to customize the appearance of the dxnotepad window. The format for a resource specification in the .Xdefaults file is:
[name*]resource: value
name Specifies the application name or the name string that restricts the resource assignment to that application or to a component of
an application. If this argument is not specified, the resource assignment is globally available to all X applications.
resource Specifies the resource.
value Specifies the value that is to be assigned to the resource.
Because each toolkit-based application can consist of a combination of widgets (for example, push buttons and a scroll bar), you can form
the name string by adding widget class and name identifiers to the string. For further information about adding class and name identi-
fiers, see
For dxnotepad, the available class identifiers are:
Label
MainWindow
Menu
MenuBar
Notepad
PushButton
Scrollbar
Text
For dxnotepad, the available name identifiers are:
notepad The name of the application.
textwindow View of the edit window. Each edit window can have one or more views into a text buffer or file.
In addition to the general resources listed in the resources available for dxnotepad are:
EnableBackups Specifies that the original file is saved as the backup file. The name of the backup file is constructed by prepending
the original file name with the string contained within the backupNamePrefix, and appended with the backupNameSuffix.
The default is On.
BackupNamePrefix Specifies the prefix of the backup file name.
BackupNameSuffix Specifies the suffix of the backup file name.
Geometry Specifies the geometry (window size and location) to be used as the default for the dxnotepad window. For more infor-
mation about the geometry specification and screen coordinate system, see If Geometry is not specified, a default
built-in geometry is used.
filter Specifies a text filter to add as an option to the Edit menu. The resource value has two parts, separated by one or
more space or tab characters: the option name to add to the menu and the ULTRIX command to execute when that option is
selected.
journalNamePrefix Specifies the prefix of the journal file name.
journalNameSuffix Specifies the suffix of the journal file name.
Each specification included for the translations resource in the .Xdefaults file modifies a key setting for the editor that dxnotepad uses.
For more information about key and mouse specifications in the .Xdefaults file, see
Files
~/.Xdefaults
See Also
X(1X), dxwm(1X),
DECwindows Desktop Applications Guide
dxnotepad(1X)