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AE - Text Editor to replace E
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AE is a simple text editor, designed to replace IBM's original OS/2 E.EXE. It mostly behaves the same, except for where behaviour has become annoying, irrelevant or inconsistent with other systems/programs.


License
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AE is freeware, and can be used for free in commercial applications so long as a credit to the author, visible to the user, is included:

Aaron Lawrence (aaronl at consultant dot com)

AE remains Copyright 2003 Aaron Lawrence.


Features
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Fixes these Stupid Things About E:
- Shift + Page up/down does not select
- Ctrl + Page up/down does something useless
- "Type of file" dialog.
- Requirement for Extended Attribute support when saving
- No File - Exit
- Refusal to save file if it thinks it isn't changed.
- Find combined with replace
- Word wrap switch is peculiar
- No shortcuts for file open etc
- No display of line, column or mode
- Task list entry does not show filename
- Vertical scrollbar blank space at end
- Silly horizontal scrollbar when wrapping
- EOF byte (Hex 1C, Dec 26) added at end of files

Enhancements (intended to be minimal!):
- Timed autosave as well as "number of changes"
- Print
- If file is read-only, text is (initially) read-only


Install
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You probably want to do this:

put ae.exe into x:\os2
put ae.hlp into x:\os2\help

or perhaps, on eCS

put ae.exe into x:\ecs\bin
put ae.hlp into x:\ecs\help

And you might want to rename ae.exe to e.exe, backing up the old e.exe. (Don't rename the help file)


Known Problems
--------------

This is beta software. I recommend caution! May set fire to your house and kill your family without notice.

DragText integration: it works, but you must use the "re-enable" feature in DragText.
 - open DT's Options notebook to Setup->Reenable
 - enter AE.EXE in the 'Program' field
 - check both 'Drag' and 'Drop' for these window types:
     Multi-line EFs, Entry Fields, and List Boxes
 - press the 'Add' button

Limitations of the PM multi-line edit (MLE):
- Line/column number display doesn't work when wrapping.
- Cut/copy/paste is limited to 64kB as with old E.
These require a major effort to fix and are not likely to happen.

If you get a "usage" screen when launching AE from the desktop, the WPS may be adding the folder
name to the parameters. Try adding a % character to the end of the parameters e.g.
Parameters:    c:\config.sys %
This will prevent the folder name from being added.
(Thanks: Paul Ratcliffe)

History
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1.5.5
  Allow tabs to be entered
  Context menu for editing
  Updated help

1.5.1
  NOTE! Translation files are now named ae_<language>.lng
  Added translations, thanks everyone
    Guillame Gay (French)
    Gabriele Gamba (Italian)
    Simon Gronlund (Swedish)
    Salvador Parra Camacho (Spanish)
    Dieter ? (German)
    D.J. van Enckevort (Dutch)
      (also Frank Vos and Kris Steenhaut)     
  Fixed bug saving files > 64kB
  Fixed specifying new file from command line
  Display status changes (eg. clear modified after save)
  Normal EXE size!

1.4.4
  Fixed page up/down
  Implemented /read command line parameter 
  Find own help file in application directory

1.4.2
  Multi-lingual support like NewView (see bottom of file)
  Fixed saving of word wrap setting

1.3.0
  Fixed saving files with no extension - don't add ..txt
  Option to print selection
  Fixed long printer list
  Drop file on window to open

1.2.3
  Removed 64kB limitations (truncation of file!)
  Autosave
  Internal restructure for better performance with large files
  Added "From top" option to find and replace
  Show "modified" indicator
  Disable cut/paste/replace if read-only
  Extra keys
    F2 = Save (like EPM)
    F3 = Exit
         default - can be changed to Find Again
    Ctrl+D Save as
    Ctrl+W Word wrap on/off
    Ctrl+A Select all
  Fixed a memory corruption bug
  More help

1.0.7
  Get rid of the default blank space at the bottom of text
    (stupid vertical scroll behaviour)
  Standard eCS Product Information dialog
  Standard menu font
  Don't display (wrong) line/column if wrapping
  BldLevel version number
 
1.0.6
  Fixed lockup printing
  If wrap is on, no horizontal scrollbar
  Can load files without extension

1.0.5 
  Public release
  Or maybe it was another version.

Multi-lingual Support
---------------------

AE can now load different languages for it's user interface. 

It looks for a file in it's own directory. The filename starts with 'ae_' and has the extension '.lng'. The particular file loaded is based on the LANG environment variable. For example, on US systems LANG=EN_US so it will look for ae_en_us.lng. If it cannot find that, it tries looking for the major part of the LANG variable, for example ae_en.lng. If it cannot find that, the default is US English (which is built into the .EXE - you have to restart to get it back).

Normally, translations are not for a particular region, so the files that come with AE are just (for example) ae_es.lng, not ae_es_es.lng.

- Creating a new translation

You can easily create a translation file for AE. Use Options - Save/Update Language to create a new .lng file. This .lng file will contain all the text items that the program uses. Translate the text and save it.

You can call the .lng file whatever you like, but follow the rules above if you want it to be loaded automatically. 

If you send me your translations, I'll include them with the next release. To save wasting your time, check with me before starting a translation, in case someone has already done one.

Notes:
~ (tilde) in the text indicates that the next letter that should be underlined and used as a hot key. (You may also see & (ampersand) which does the same thing, but does not work quite as well - please tell me if you see one.)

\t in the text indicates a tab character, and is used to separate a menu item from it's "accelerator" or key combination. However, you CANNOT change the accelerator e.g. F3 for Exit by this means (or any means). Please leave the part after \t as it is.

- Updating an existing translation

If you already have a file, that needs some updates - perhaps for a new version - then just save to the file again. The new items needing translation will be added, and items that are no longer required removed.

Unneeded items are left at the end of the file for you to check; remove them after you've done so, to save space. Note that sometimes items might be renamed, in this case you need to copy the old value to the new name. (Sorry!)

New items needing translation will be marked with *** 

Note: unfortunately any comments etc in the file will be discarded when you save. 

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