Using the AE Editor

1
Using the AE Editor

• Bridgewater College
• Information Technology Center
• Scott A. Moomaw

2
What is AE?

• AE is the Alternative Editor
• It is a line editor that is included with Unidata
• It can edit records in the various files of a
  database

3
Starting AE

• At a colon prompt, invoke AE giving it the name
  of the file and record that you desire to edit
• For example, to edit the job named MYJOB that is
  stored in B55.WORK
• AE B55.WORK MYJOB

4
Example

• AE B55.WORK SAMPLE
• Top of SAMPLE in B55.WORK, 2 lines, 25
  characters.
• 001 Line One
• 002 Next line in file
• Bottom.

5
Working Inside AE

• Inside of AE, you will work at a -- prompt
• The P command will display the next screen-full
  of information
• You can specify the number of lines to show you
  by following the P command with a number, i.e. P5
• When positioned on a line, press ENTER to get to
  the next line

6
Positioning Commands

• T Go to the top of the record
• B Go to the bottom of the record
• Go to the line specified
• Advance of lines
• - Go backward of lines

7
Finding Text

• L sometext Go to the first line containing
  sometext
• L Repeat the last search
• L/text Find text in the next lines
• L10/mytext

8
Inserting New Text

• To add new lines to a record, you must use the
  insert command
• Type I at the AE prompt to invoke line insert
  mode
• In insert mode, the lines that you type are added
  to the record
• You will have a line counter as your prompt while
  you are in line insert mode

9
Exiting Line Insert Mode

• When you are finished with adding lines to a
  record, press at the beginning of the
  line to return to the normal AE command mode
• Because an empty line signifies to AE that you
  want to exit input mode, you must type a single
  backtick character to leave an empty line in
  the record

10
The Change Command

• C/oldtext/newtext/ changes oldtext into newtext
• C//text/ adds text to the front of the line
• C/old/new/G changes every occurrence of old to
  new in the line
• C/old/new/G10 changes every occurrence of old to
  new in the next 10 lines

11
Appending Text to a Line

• Use the A command to add text to the end of a
  line
• A newtext

12
Deleting Lines

• D will delete the current line
• D will delete of lines

13
Replacing the Contents of a Line

• The R command will allow you to replace the
  contents of the current line
• R newtext
• By typing R you can replace the
  contents of a line with an empty line

14
Saving and Exiting the Editor

• FI file the current record and exit
• Q Quit without saving
• SAVE recname Save new copy of record in recname
• SAVE filename recname Save new copy of record
  in recname in the file filename

15
Cut, Copy, and Paste

• Mark beginning of a block
• COPY Make a copy of a block at the current
  location
• MOVE Move the marked block to the current
  location
• DROP Delete the current block

16
Editing Values/Subvalues

• EV Edit multi-valued lines as if each value was
  a separate line
• ESV Edit multi-subvalued lines as if each
  subvalue was a separate line
• To exit EV or ESV, you choose Q to quit without
  saving changes or FI to save your changes

17
Loading Other Records

• You can load the contents of another record into
  the currently open record
• LOAD filename recordname

18
Miscellaneous Commands

• OOPS Undo last command
• SPOOL Print the contents of the current record
  to the default printer
• Turn on (or off) display of control
  characters
• J Join the current line with next
• XEQ Execute a non-editor command (ECL) from
  within the editor

19
AE and Savedlists

• You can edit multiple records by making them part
  of an active select line
• SELECT PERSON WITH NAME EQ Miller
• AE PERSON
• This example will edit the PERSON records which
  have been selected. The records will be
  presented one after another.

20
Editing Multiple Records

• Use the Q command to exit the current record
• Use the QK command to exit from the entire list
  of records to be edited
• Use the N command to advance to the next record
• Use the FI command to file the current record

21
Prestoring Commands

• Prestored commands can be recalled for later use
• To create a prestored command, type an equal sign
  followed by the name of the command, a space, and
  the command(s)
• MYCOMMAND TOP
• This example creates a command named MYCOMMAND
  that does the same as TOP.

22
Multiple Instructions In Command

• You can include multiple instructions in your
  prestored editor command
• To do this, you must separate the commands by the
  Command Delimiter
• The (backtick) character is a default
• To see the current Command Delimiter use the ?
  (info) command
• The CD command can set your own Command
  Delimiter
• CD sets the command delimiter to

23
Longer Command

• SAM TC/teh/the/G9999
• The sample command SAM will go to the top of the
  record and then correct the spelling of the on
  the next 9999 lines making changes globally.
• Execute this command by typing
• SAM

24
Advanced AE

• You can acquire more power by combining the
  savedlists processing capabilities and pre-stored
  editor commands

25
ExercisesUsing AE