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: Help: Text Editor:
Overview
's Text Editor provides a mechanism for editing remote text
files. It is implemented using the following simple idea: Files are
"opened" by having their content inserted in a 'TEXTAREA' field of
an HTML form. They are saved by submitting the form such that
overwrites the existing file with the submitted content.
While the idea is very simple and commonly used elsewhere, its
implementation is not so trivial and must be used with care. Otherwise,
file corruption can easily occur. A detailed description of some potential
problems and workarounds is included in the Help page for the Editor's options
setting form. As initial usage guidelines we should stress the following:
-
Merely opening a file in the Editor doesn't overwrite anything, and
thus cannot corrupt files. Saving a file, however, will completely
overwrite the existing file and has the potential of corrupting
the file even if no modifications to it where made.
-
While the "text content" of files should be preserved (when they are
being saved by the Editor), their precise binary content may be
altered. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO EDIT ANY FILES OTHER THAN PLAIN TEXT FILES.
-
Make backups of important files prior to any attempt to edit them with
this Editor.
-
Due to differences in 'TEXTAREA' implementations among different
browsers, the Editor has certain options settings that should be tailored
to fit the browser in use. The Editor's default settings (when shipped)
should work well with most browsers, and in particular, with
Netscape Navigator, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and Sun's HotJava.
If you wish to use the Editor with any other browser, it is recommended that
you first invoke the Editor's options setting form (click 'Options') and
study the information and options available there.
-
With most Windows browsers (including both Microsoft's Internet Explorer
and Netscape Navigator for NT/95) there is a restriction of about 24-30
Kilobytes on the size of files that can be edited. Moreover, since every
file saving operation involves sending the entire file back and forth,
editing large files is not recommended even if the browser does support
it (as is usually the case with UNIX browsers). Note that large files
can be edited by downloading them, editing them with a local text editor,
and then uploading them back. 's 'text mode' options for both
uploading and downloading files can be used to support such on operation
across different platforms.
Usage
Since the Editor uses a browser-provided edit box, most of its
features actually depend on the browser being used. In particular,
things like the font being used, the way to 'Cut','Copy', and 'Paste' text,
and whether or not the Editor has search/replace or even spell-checking
capabilities are determined by the browser. In most cases (namely, with most
browsers), the provided capabilities are fairly elementary, but yet
sufficient for simple editing tasks.
The Editor itself provides the following functions, which are available
by clicking the appropriate buttons:
- Save
- Saves the current content of the Editor to the appropriate
file. If the Editor had been invoked without specifying a file, then the
first 'Save' operation would behave the same as 'Sava As', namely, it would
prompt for a filename.
- Save As
- Prompts for a new filename and then Saves the current
content of the Editor to this file.
- Save+Exit
- Saves the current content of the Editor to the appropriate
file and exits the Editor (same as 'Save', but exits the Editor).
- Reset
- Restores the Editor's content to the state it has been
in when the form was last retrieved, namely, to its state following the
last 'Save' or 'Reload' operation.
- Reload
- Retrieves the file from the server (namely, from disk)
and should have the same effect as 'Reset' unless the file had been
modified from another Editor form or by another program.
- Options
- Invokes the Text Editor options setting form. Note
that the file is NOT BEING SAVED, and it would be retrieved from the
server once the options setting form is exited. That is, invoking
'Options' is also doing an implicit 'Reload'. If you want to preserve
changes made to the file since it was last loaded, you should use 'Save'
prior to invoking 'Options'. However, if you forgot to save the file,
it can usually be recovered by using your browser's 'Back'
button to go back to the form from which 'Options' was invoked.
- Help
- Appends this help page to the top of the Text Editor
form. Note that the file is NOT BEING SAVED, such that invoking 'Help'
is also doing an implicit 'Reload'. If you want to preserve changes made
to the file since it was last loaded, you should use 'Save' prior to
invoking 'Help'. However, if you forgot to save the file,
it can usually be recovered by using your browser's 'Back'
button to go back to the form from which 'Help' was invoked.
- Exit
- Exits the Editor without saving the file.