Frequently Asked Questions

on
Programmer's File Editor
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[Answers in this file refer to facilities available in PFE 1.01.000]
You may find information on any problem you have encountered in the
problems.txt file, which lists known major problems in the current release
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Q. What version of PFE is recommended for my current environments?
A. PFE is supplied in two forms: the 16-bit edition (PFE.EXE) and the
32-bit edition (PFE32.EXE). The recommended versions for various
platforms are these:
Windows 3.1x
Windows for Workgroups 3.1x 16-bit Edition
Windows NT 3.51 (Intel)
Windows NT 4.0 (Intel)
Windows 2000 (Intel)
Windows 95
Windows 98 32-bit Edition
An earlier release of PFE, version 0.07.002, is also available for Windows NT
3.51 and 4.0 on PowerPC pocessors.
Note that the "Intel" versions are also suitable for Intel-compatible
processors such as the Cyrix and AMD chip sets
Version 1.00.000 is the last for which a 16-bit Edition will be produced.
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Q. I'm using the 32-Bit Edition, and I've set up associations so that I can
open files in PFE by double clicking the names in File Manager and Explorer. It
works fine most of the time, but if the name contains spaces it doesn't - PFE
seems to think each part of the name is a filename all by itself
A. The problem here is that the most obvious command line to use in your
association:
pfe32
is not correct. Since PFE allows multiple files to be named on the command
line, you must use some extra syntactic elements in the association.
To set up your associations easily and correctly, and to enable some right-
click menu functionality under Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 and
Windows 2000, you need to set them up in the "Associations" panel of the dialog
started by the Options Preferences panel.
If you want to create associations yourself you can do so: the command line
to use is
pfe32 "%1"
where the "%1" part ensures that the filename you click on is contained in
quotes when the command is issued. However, if you do this you won't see the
context menu items relating to PFE; and you may not find future enhancements
will work correctly.
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Q. I'm using the 32-bit Edition, and sometimes the flashing insertion point
marker just disappears and I can't type into any window. If I switch to another
application and back to PFE, it works fine. What's wrong?
A. You are most probably using a Microsoft IntelliMouse with version 2.2 or
later of the drivers that provide a facility known as "Universal Scrolling"
(standard with Windows 98 and Windows 2000).
The driver aims to provide wheel support for applications that don't themselves
implement it, and there are some bugs in how it works with some programs,
including PFE. This version of PFE usually can get around the driver bugs under
Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows 98, but there can still be problems
under Windows 95 - turning the mouse wheel or clicking on it will cause the
symptoms described.
The solution is to disable the "Universal Scrolling" feature for PFE. Click on
Start|Settings|Control Panel and then double click on the Mouse icon to get to
the IntelliMouse control panel, and select the "Wheel" tab at the top of the
dialog.
Next, click on the "Exceptions" button, click on "Add" in the new dialog that
appears, and browse to find the PFE32.EXE executable program file. Clicking on
"Open" will add PFE to the list of programs for which the driver will not
provide "Universal Scrolling".
Once you've done this, you'll still be able to scroll PFE windows by turning
the mouse wheel, but you won't be able to scroll by clicking the mouse wheel
and moving the mouse. Incidentally, it won't matter if you move the PFE
executable to some other folder or install a new version - the mouse driver
identifies the program from internal information within the executable data.
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Q. Why can't I open more than one file at a time with the File Open and File
View commands? Early versions of PFE allowed me to do this.
A. In this release, the various file opening dialogs all default to allowing
you to select only one file at a time.
You can use the "General Options" panel of the dialog started by the Options
Prefences command to enable multiple selection; however, under Windows NT 3.51
some long file names will not appear correctly (see the next item)
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Q. I'm using Windows NT 3.51, and I used Options Preferences to allow me to
open more than one file at a time in the File Open command. However, my long
file names don't apear any more - I just see the DOS 8.3 names
A. There is a basic flaw in Microsoft's design of the library that provides the
standard file open dialogs under Windows NT 3.51 (this code is not part of
PFE). Essentially, it can't handle long file names THAT CONTAIN SPACES if you
also allow multiple files to be selected. Long file names without spaces are
handled correctly; but Microsoft's code automatically shows those with spaces
as 8.3 names in order to get around their design error.
In its default mode of operation, PFE allows you to open only one file at a
time, and here the problem does not arise.
Unfortunately, there is no way to beat this problem - if you want to open
multiple files at one time, you won't see names with spaces in.
On the good side, though, the problem does not arise at all if you're running
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000
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Q. I use Windows NT on a DEC Alpha system - is there an executable of PFE32 for
this?
A. PFE32 exists only for Intel hardware; however, users report that on DEC
Alpha machines this runs very well under the Intel emulation system.
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Q. How can I arrange that edit windows are created to use the maximum area
available in the MDI client area?
A. You can do this with the Options Preferences command. Start the
preferences dialog and select "Window Control" from the list of option
categories on the left. This shows you a panel that lets you configure
exactly how child windows will be created
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Q. Why don't all the TrueType fonts I have installed on my system appear in the
printer and screen fonts dialogs?
A. Because PFE is a programming-oriented text editor, rather than a word
processor, it supports only fixed pitch fonts (ones in which all characters
occupy the same width on screen or paper). There are, sadly, very few fixed
pitch fonts available. There are no plans to add variable fixed pitch support
in a future release.
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Q. I want PFE to remember the names of more than the last 5 files I've edited,
so I can pick them quickly from the File menu. How can I do this?
A. You can configure the Most Recently Used (MRU) list with the Options
Preferences command. Start the preferences dialog, and select "MRU List" from
the list of option categories on the left. This shows you the panel that
configures the MRU list.
You can configure the total size of the list, and how many files from
the list will appear on the File menu (you will be able to select from the
entire list with a dialog command that will follow the list on the menu).
You can also specify that the File menu should be drawn in two columns rather
than one if you want to show a large number of files. Note that you will need
to exit PFE and restart it before your changes take effect.
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Q. I don't like the standard Windows File Manager, and prefer to use a third
party one. How can I get the File Manager item on the Execute menu to start
this instead of the standard one?
A. You can configure what the various "Manager" items on the Execute
menu do with the Options Preferences command. Start the preferences
dialog and select "Windows Managers" from the list of option categories
on the left to show the panel that handles this
For each of the menu items, you can specify that PFE should run either
the standard manager program supplied with Windows, or runs a command
line of your choice
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Q. I use 4DOS-for-NT as my Windows NT command processor instead of Microsoft's
cmd.exe - how can I get the Execute DOS Prompt and associated tool bar button
to start this?
A. Normally, PFE will use the executable file named in the COMSPEC environment
variable as the command processor. If this variable is not set, it uses the
standard defaults "command.com" under Windows 3.1x, and "cmd.exe" under Windows
NT, Windows 2000, Windows 95 and Windows 98
You can define the command processor you want to start with the Options
Preferences command. Select the "DOS Shell" panel to configure what is started
by the Execute DOS Prompt command; select the "Command Processor" panel to
configure the command line used to run applications by the Execute DOS Command
To Window command
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Q. How can I record my keyboard macros for use in other sessions?
A. The macro that you record as you type on the keyboard - known as the "active
keyboard recording" - can be saved at any time with the Macro Save Recording
command; PFE will automatically load it at the start of the next session.
You can also build libraries of macros that you can assign to keys of your
choice using the Macro Librarian command.
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Q. How does PFE manage to allow more than 32K of text to be edited in an edit
control?
A. PFE doesn't, in fact, use standard edit controls to show text. The windows
you see are ordinary MDI child windows, and the text is drawn explicitly by PFE
as required. Internally, a complicated memory management system keeps track of
where each line of each file is stored.
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Q. Why, if I have word wrap switched on for a window, will PFE wrap text only
when I'm typing at the end of the line and not when I insert in the middle of
it?
A. The current design of PFE is set to do things that way for efficiency
reasons. However, the Edit Text Reformat and Edit Text Reformat Paragraph
commands allow you to reflow text to fit the current wrap margin at any time.
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Q. Why do I get "Help file not found" when I ask for help?
A. Make sure that you have the help file pfe.hlp in the same directory as the
pfe.exe or pfe32.exe executable program
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Q. Why is the default of 32 undoable actions so small? Surely, when I'm typing
text, I'll fill that up in 32 keypresses?
A. Actually, no - the undo system doesn't work in quite that way. It records
specific _actions_ in its stack, such as a drag-drop move of text, or a cut of
the highlighted text. When you're typing, each keypress is considered as part
of a _single_ action, which is terminated only when you do something different,
like moving the caret with the arrow keys, or switching to another window.
Then, when you use the Undo Typing command, PFE will remove all the typing
you've performed in that action (a future release of PFE will probably let you
undo typing actions character-by-character too)
You can change the number of undo actions that PFE records with the Options
Preferences command. Start the preferences dialog and select "Editing Files"
from the list of option categories on the left to show the relevant panel that
lets you set the size of the list
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Q. If I select some text and start to drag it to a new location, how can I
change my mind without having to drop the text somewhere and then undo the
action?
A. You can cancel a drag-and-drop in one of two ways. If the highlighted text
is visible in the window, move the mouse cursor somewhere inside it and release
the left button. Alternatively, press the Escape key before you release the
left mouse button.
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Q. How can I use drag-and-drop to move text from one window to another?
A. In the current design, PFE supports drag-and-drop only _within_ a window.
Inter-window operation may be added in a future release.
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Q. How can I configure PFE so that the File Save command and its associated
tool bar button are always available? At the moment, I can only use the command
when I've changed the file in some way.
A. By default, PFE enables the File Save command only when the file showing in
a window has altered. This gives you some feedback (complementing the 'file
changed' marker in the status bar) that helps you avoid un-necessary saves.
You can use the Options Preferences command to change this setting.
Start the preferences dialog and select "Saving Files" from the list of
option categories on the left to show the relevant panel. Check the box
labelled "Allow File Save on unaltered files" to make the File Save
command and the toolbar button always available
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Q. I like the window that runs DOS commands with output capture to start full
screen, and to have specific tuning details set. How can I do this?
A. DOS commands with output capture are run by either the pfedos.exe (for
Windows 3) or pfedos32.exe (for Windows NT) helper modules. To change how the
windows are created, set up suitable PIF files pfedos.pif and/or pfedos32.pif
in the same directory, and use the Windows PIF editor to set the details as you
require
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Q. How do I insert a Form Feed into a file, or specify it in the Find and
Replace dialogs?
A. To insert a Form Feed (or any other non-typable character) use the
EditTextInsertASCIICode command, which is by default mapped to Ctrl+Q. This
starts up a dialog that lets you select Esc and Ctrl+A - Ctrl+Z easily by name,
or specify any ASCII code you like as a number.
To specify Form Feed in the Find or Replace dialogs, write it as the two-
character sequence "\f". You can also specify end-of-line by "\n" and tab by
"\t"; and you can specify an arbitrary code as "\xhh", where "hh" represents
two hex digits. Remember that if you actually want a "\" character, you need to
write it as "\\".
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Q. Why do I see lots of files with type .$$$ (PFE version 0.05.007 and later)
in my directories?
A. These are the backup files that PFE produces whenever you save a file. If a
file of the same name exists already, PFE renames it with a type of .$$$ before
writing the new data to disk.
The Options Preferences command allows you to configure some defaults
for how backup is handled. Start the preferences dialog and select "Backup"
from the list of option categories on the left to show the relevant
panel.
In this dialog, you can disable all backup permanently; choose to have
PFE make backup files to the same directory as the original file but
with a file extension of your choice; or to make the copy into a file of
the same name as the original, but in a subdirectory of the directory
containing it
The File Save As dialog and the Options Default Modes and Options
Current Modes dialogs also let you control some backup actions on a per-
file basis
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Q. I used the Options Preferences, Options Default Modes and Options
Current Modes command to set background colours for my edit windows and
the main PFE workspace. Why are the colours I get not the ones I
selected?
A. Depending on what type of video adapter you have fitted to your
computer, only a very few of the infinite number of colours can be shown
as pure or "solid" colours. Normally your system will provide 16 such
solid colours, and you will see these in the block of colours shown at
top left in the colour selection dialog.
When Windows is asked to display some other colour, it has to use a
technique known as "dithering", that simulates the shade you want. For
example, it might produce a pale blue by drawing a fine grid of dark
blue lines on a white background; this will appear to be the colour you
wanted when seen from a suitable distance.
Dithered colours are very unpleasant to use as backgrounds for text, and
writing text on such a background is very much slower that if the
background were a solid colour. For these reasons, PFE does not support
the use of dithered colours, but instead translates the colour value you
select to the closest available solid colour.
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Q. I work with a number of large projects and would like to have
separate customised PFE environments. Can I do this?
A. With the 16-Bit Edition, you can use PFE's ability to locate its
initialisation file pfe.ini in an arbitrary directory to do this.
With the 32-Bit Edition you can use "multiple configuration sets" in the
registry to the same effect.
These facilities are controlled by the Options Preferences command; the Help
button on the dialog will take you to descriptions of how they operate.
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Q. What are the licensing arrangements for PFE? I use it at home and
would like to do so at my work too.
A. PFE is FreeWare. You don't need to register to use it, and there is
no fee. You can use it at home, or at work without restriction.
If you'd like to include PFE on the distribution disks with a commercial
product you can obtain a licence that will enable you to do this.
The help file contains full details on the current usage and licensing
position.
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Q. I'm editing files on a NFS-mounted partition with the 16-Bit Edition,
and whenever I save my edit changes the long name of the file disappears
and all I see is the NFS-generated 8.3 name. What's happened?
A. The problem is in the way that PFE makes backups when you save files.
In the current version, any existing file is renamed to be the backup
copy, and a new file is created with the old name to save the changes
into.
The step of renaming the file breaks the association that NFS maintains
between the DOS 8.3 name and the file's long name. Thus, when PFE
creates the new file to save - using the 8.3 name - NFS can no longer
translate this to the "real" name and so has to pass the 8.3 name itself
to Windows.
The only circumvention available in the current release is to disable
making backup copies in these circumstances.
This problem does not arise in the 32-Bit Edition
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Q. How do I change the font that I use to print files out? In previous releases
there was a "Font" button in the Print Setup dialog, but it's gone now
A. The printer system uses the same user interface and dialogs as other
applications; the Print and Print Setup dialogs you see are the standard ones
that are part of Windows.
Unfortunately, the way that Windows works with these dialogs means that it
isn't possible to select fonts from them. You should use the File Page Setup
command for this.
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Q. I'm using the Execute DOS Command To Window command to run my compiler,
which will prompt me for input if there's an error. Using the 32-bit edition I
see the compiler output in the console window, but I never see the prompts and
the output window seems to lock up, although if I type the expected reply blind
it all seems to work. What's going wrong?
A. The problem here arises because PFE is essentially trying to subvert the
compiler, fooling it into thinking that it's writing to the screen (as it
normally would) when actually it's sending all its output to PFE (actually, to
a small helper program that PFE runs for this purpose).
If the compiler or other program is simply writing, then it all works fine. But
as you've seen, there are problems if the program wants you to perform input.
Normally, when a program writes to the screen, Windows makes sure that all the
output is sent there directly and not stored in the program's or Windows's
buffers. Thus, you see the prompt as soon as the program writes it, and you
know what to do.
But when PFE runs the compiler, the output is actually not to the screen, but
to PFE. The compiler itself doesn't know the difference, but the underlying I/O
systems and Windows certainly do. Since they know the program isn't writing to
the screen, the compiler's output will be buffered for efficiency - thus it's
quite possible, and actually most probable, that the prompt string will be
stored in a buffer waiting to be written to the screen when the compiler asks
you to type - so you never see the prompt.
There is no way round this problem, unfortunately. Although techniques are
available for programs to detect what's happening and make sure that you _do_
see the prompt, you'll be lucky to find one that uses them.
The moral, sadly, is that the Execute DOS Command To Window command is not
suitable if the program you want to run will ever require you to type in to it
rather than simply generate output
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Q. I like to work with tab width of 4 in my files, and I can set this up with
the Options Current Modes command. However, if I edit the same files again, the
tab setting reverts to the default of 8. How can I change this?
A. The Options Current Modes command affects the modes applied to only the
current window; the effect is limited to that window, and when it closes the
settings are lost.
To do what you want - which is to define the default modes for a file - you
need to use the Options Default Modes command.
You'll find full information on how to use this command in the help file.
Basically, you can define a number of "mode groups", which are collections of
filename patterns like "*.c *.h readme.*". With each mode group you define the
default modes you want; then, if any file you open has a name matching
something in a mode group, the relevant default modes are applied.
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Q. I put the 32-Bit Edition of PFE on my desktop for handy access, but now it
can't find the help file and if I try to run DOS commands I get a message
"Unable to run pfedos32 helper module"
A. You've probably made a _copy_ of the pfe32.exe program file on your desktop,
rather than creating a _shortcut_. When you make a copy, Windows copies the
executable file to a special directory on your hard disk, and when you click
the icon, the program is started from there.
PFE will run happily like this; but when you ask for help, or try to run a DOS
command, it will find that the pfe.hlp help file and pfedos32.exe helper
module are not in the same desktop directory as the program.
The solution is to delete the copy of PFE from your desktop and create a proper
shortcut - if you use the _right_ mouse button to drap the PFE program file
from its folder to the desktop, you'll see an option to create a shortcut on
the menu that appears.
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Q. I have a 3-button mouse with drivers that emulate the wheel in a Microsoft
Intellimouse, but PFE doesn't seem to respond when I try to use the middle
button for scrolling
A. A standard Microsoft Intellimouse actually provides two distinct modes of
operation: the central wheel can be both rotated as a wheel and clicked as a
button.
Rotating the central wheel is normally used for scrolling, while clicking it
initiates a feature known as "auto-panning", where the window moves to follow
the mouse movement.
PFE supports the standard Microsoft IntelliMouse; other wheel mice may or may
not work correctly.
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Q. I have a spelling checker that works fine with NotePad and some other
applications, but not with PFE. Why is this?
A. External spell-check applications have to make some sweeping assumptions
about how the application they're told to work with actually operates. Normally
they assume that the application's text windows are a standard feature of
Windows called an "edit control", or provide some emulation interfaces to this.
With NotePad this is true; however PFE neither uses a standard "edit control"
nor (at present) provides an emulation interface
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