Editing information is a staple on any working system. Whether you wish to make a remark about one thing, write a letter to a pal, or replace a system configuration file—you want an editor. And FreeDOS supplies a user-friendly textual content editor referred to as (maybe unimaginatively) “FreeDOS Edit.”
Editing information
The easiest invocation of FreeDOS Edit is simply EDIT. This brings up an empty editor window. The patterned background suggests an empty “desktop”—a reminder that you just aren’t enhancing any information.
Like most DOS functions, you may entry the menus in Edit by tapping the Alt key as soon as in your keyboard. This prompts the menu. After hitting Alt, Edit will change to “menu” entry and can spotlight the “File” menu. If you wish to entry a unique menu on the menu bar, use the left and proper arrow keys. Press the down arrow or hit the Enter key to go “into” the menu.
Do you discover that the primary letter for every menu title is a unique shade? This spotlight signifies a shortcut. For instance, the “F” within the “File” menu is highlighted in purple. So you might as an alternative press Alt+F (Alt and F on the similar time) and Edit will carry up the “File” menu.
You can use the “File” menu to both begin a brand new (empty) file, or open an current file. Let’s begin a brand new file through the use of the arrow keys to maneuver right down to “New” and urgent the Enter key. You can even begin a brand new file by urgent Ctrl+N (Ctrl and N on the similar time):
Editing information ought to be fairly simple after that. Most of the acquainted keyboard shortcuts exist in FreeDOS Edit: Ctrl+C to repeat textual content, Ctrl+X to chop textual content, and Ctrl+V to stick copied or lower textual content into a brand new location. If it is advisable to discover particular textual content in an extended doc, press Ctrl+F. To save your work, use Ctrl+S to commit modifications again to the disk.
Programming in Edit
If you are a programmer, you might discover the prolonged ASCII desk a helpful addition. DOS methods supported an “extended” ASCII character set generally known as “code page 437.” The customary characters between zero and 127 embrace the letters A via Z (uppercase and lowercase), numbers, and particular symbols like punctuation. However, the DOS prolonged characters from code 128 to code 255 included international language characters and “line drawing” parts. DOS programmers typically made use of those prolonged ASCII characters, so FreeDOS Edit makes it straightforward to view a desk of all of the ASCII codes and their related characters.
To view the ASCII desk, use the “Utilities” menu and choose the “ASCII Table” entry. This brings up a window containing a desk.
Along the left, the desk exhibits the hexadecimal values “00” via “F0,” and the highest exhibits the one values “0” via “F.” These present a fast reference to the hexadecimal code for every character. For instance, the merchandise within the first row (00) and the primary column (zero) has the hexadecimal worth 00 + zero, or 0x00 (the “NULL” worth). And the character within the fifth row (40) and the second column (1) has the worth 40 + 1, or 0x41 (the letter “A”).
As you progress the cursor via the desk to focus on completely different characters, you may see the values on the backside of the desk change to indicate the character’s code in decimal, hexadecimal, and octal. For instance, shifting the cursor to focus on the “line intersection” character at row C0 and column 5 exhibits this prolonged character code as 197 (dec), 0xc5 (hex), and 305 (oct). In a program, you would possibly reference this prolonged character by typing the hex worth 0xc5, or the octal “escape code” 305.
Feel free to discover the menus in Edit to find different neat options. For instance, the “Options” menu lets you change the conduct and look of Edit. If you favor to make use of a extra dense show, you need to use the “Display” menu (below “Options”) to set Edit to 25, 43, or 50 strains. You can even power Edit to show in monochrome (white on black) or reversed mode (black on white).
