As you might expect, the basic function of EdWord is to edit text, and in this role it offers all of the rudimentary facilities which any standard text editor might offer. But what makes EdWord that bit more special are the myriad extra options which it provides. The following is a list of some of the more noteworthy features which are supported by version 6.0:
Multiple Documents: you can edit up to 15 documents at once (memory permitting, of course) with a split screen option to view two of them together.
A Macro Facility which can record any sequence of keypresses/mouse clicks and menu selections, and then play them back. This is very useful for automating small repetitive jobs.
An Auto Completion facility to automatically complete the current word (based upon the contents of the currently loaded Keyword Definition File).
A Find Functions facility to list all functions/procedures in a source code file and allow the user to jump directly to any of these by clicking over its name.
An ARexx port offering an extensive and comprehensive range of commands (over 100) to provide full automation of EdWord; with the ability to enter these commands directly (without using ARexx), as well as run any ARexx script from within the editor .
PowerPacker Support: EdWord will (optionally) decrunch any data files which have been packed with this data cruncher.
A new few feature called Auto Suggest whereby if you type in a filename which doesn't exist when loading, then EdWord will make an intelligent suggestion as to what you actually meant to type in by finding the filename which closet matches it!
AppWindow Support: When running EdWord on a WorkBench screen, it is possible to load a file by simply dragging its icon into the editor's window
Vertical Blocks as well as the standard blocks, i.e. you can cut, copy and paste rectangular regions of text.
Support for the Clipboard Device
Functions to Format Paragraphs, e.g. left and full justify.
An Iconify feature via a Workbench AppIcon or a zoom gagdet on the editor's window (when on the WorkBench screen) and
A Calculator which lets you perform basic arithmetic as well as convert numbers between different bases including decimal,hexa- decimal, octal and binary (Separate Program)
An Auto Indenting facility to preserve the left margin
A Symbolic Indenting facility for context-sensitive indentation, i.e. EdWord can automatically indent your source code as you type it.
A Word Wrap facility, plus the ability to format text to margins, justify etc. (via ARexx scripts).
Text Casing of language keywords, i.e. certain keywords can be forced into a certain case (UPPERCASE, lowercase or Capitalisedor colour. Useful to maintain a consistent look to a piece of source code.
User Commands allow the user to run any AmigaDOS commands from within the editor. (e.g. This could be used to run a compiler or assembler through the editor or open a NewShell etc.)
An Auto Save facility to make EdWord automatically save your document every so often.
A New Shell facility.
Save Back Ups and Auto Save files to any specified directory.
The ability to use either the standard EdWord file requester or the reqtools.library or asl.library ones
Modification of a file's Protection Bits and Comment
An ASCII table of printable character codes with the ability to insert any such character into the current text (from ASCII code 0 to 255).
The ability to Sort a Block alphabetically - this could be used for arranging a list of names, games etc.
A statistically display of the System's State, e.g. memory, disks etc.
Word Count and Occurrence Count facilities
User-definable F-Keys. Can insert raw text or perform various ARexx commands.
An interactive Status Bar. Sections can be clicked on to perform various functions (e.g. click over line number to bring up Jump To Line requeser).
Bookmarks to mark locations in a file and quickly jump to them.
Checks RAM for any Viruses or suspicious programs when it first loads up and alerts the user if it finds anything strange.
Various Screen Resolutions are supported including PAL and NTSC standards, custom or WorkBench screen and the ability to work in interlace mode. All with 2, 4 or 8 colours.
Powerful Printing options including the setting of margins, the page length, the ability to include page numbers and to specify the print pitch and quality.
On-line Help Texts (in AmigaGuide format) available from within the editor.
Tested under Workbench V2.0 and V3.0. Requires Workbench 2.0 or higher (1MB of RAM minimum is recommended for operation).
I was born in Scotland and come from a small town on the north-east coast called Lossiemouth (between Inverness and Aberdeen).
I gained my B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. I then moved to the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where I completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science.
Upon graduating from Edinburgh, I started work for SRI International in Menlo Park, CA.I worked there for 5 years and then moved to a graphics software engineer position at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, CA.
I am on the Board of Directors of the Web3D Consoritum, and Team Leader of Consortium's Specification Team. I am a Fellow of the Virtual Reality Society (FVRS), a member of the ACM and the IEEE, a member of the UK Virtual Reality Special Interest Group (UK VR-SIG), co-chair of the GeoVRML Working Group, and a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University.
I was on the organizing and program committees for the CVE 2000 conference on Collaborative Virtual Environments, and the program committee for the Web3D 2001 and 2002 conferences, among others.
I have spent many years doing various martial arts; principally WTF Taekwon-Do and Tukido. I hold a black belt (1st Dan) and four British Tukido Championships gold medals, as well as various regional titles. When I can, I train at the Tang So Do club here at the SRI gym.
Although I've not done it for ages, I have always had a passion for flying and have gained my glider pilot's wings. The pinnacle so far has been to fly a Hunter fast jet down the valleys of Loch Ness, and to follow this up with some aeros pulling over 5G.
In the computing world, I have written various public domain and shareware programs. My major product has been the EdWord Professional text editor for the Amiga. I also wrote a little version of Mine Sweeper for the Amiga, and a 3D version for the SGI.
As I have just mentioned, I am a Scotsman. Before I moved to California I lived in Edinburgh. This is a really beautiful city and there's lots going on there. (Did you know that Edinburgh is twinned with San Diego?)
I enjoy going off to the cinema and watching movies ("Casablanca" is one of my favourites).
I like to get out and see some of the world that surrounds us all. Currently I've seen four of the continents. My photo album has various pictures from my trips around the world to date.
I like buying books. I may never read them all for years, but I just like buying them.
I enjoy playing and watching basketall too. I'm crap at the game.
As for music, I listen to most things from Mozart to Metalica, with excursions through the eighties, dabblings in dance, a bit of brit pop, and a propensity towards the popular.
I also enjoy eating (mostly food that isn't good for you). In particular I like pizzas, and anything which has any chocolate, in, on or near it :-)
Another very handy program, Available for Download on Martins site, is Detime (PC). This small program may interest readers of the CRYPT.
Detime
Detime is a very simple little utility that I wrote because my camera keeps insisting on putting those annoying time and date stamps over the bottom-left corner of my photos. This utility will try to erase that timestamp in a scanned version of the photo. It will try to locate all pixels in the timestamp and set these to the colour of the nearest non-timestamp pixel.
Martin Reddy.
http://MartinReddy.net/
Copyright Information
All photos/Graphics and text (with the exceptions of the editors Notes) are copyright of Dr Martin Reddy, and should not be re-published without prior consent.
RIYAN Production would like to thank Dr Martin Reddy for his assistance in publishing this article
