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AED -- A New Applesoft Program Editor.............Reviewed by
                                          Bob Sander-Cederlof

One of the joys of putting the Apple Assembly Line out each month has been the knowledge that a lot of readers are putting making good use out of what I print.  A case in point:  William Linn, of Lithonia, Georgia, was inspired by a combination of several articles to produce a new software product we all can use!

He calls it AED, which stands for Applesoft EDitor.  AED combines in one easy-to-use package:

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Line Editing as in PLE and the S-C Macro Assembler
Automatic Line Numbering
Global Search and Replace (with wildcard matching)
Controlled LISTing (Page- or Line-at-a-time, and Slow Scroll)
Display of Variables after execution
Quick entry of DOS commands from a mini-menu
And a lot more.

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I said it is easy to use.  Why?  Here are a few reasons:
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The screen is split, with the line being entered at the bottom 6 lines and two possiblities for the top 18 lines.  The top 18 lines are used for listing or for display of the most frequently used commands and edit controls.

The commands and edit controls are single letters or control-letters, with mnemonic value.

An inverse letter appears before the prompt character indicating which of six special modes you are in, so you don't get lost.

Clicks and tones provide pleasant feedback at appropriate times.

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One very unusual feature, which I have grown to love in a very short time, is a new kind of cursor.  Rather than the flashing cursor of the standard Apple input routines, AED alternates the underline character with the character already on the screen.  This alternation is done at the same rate as the Apple's flashing mode, but doesn't tire the eyes.

AED loads into memory from $8500 through $95FF, and uses a 256-byte buffer from $8400 to $84FF.  HIMEM is set to $83FF.

AED is normally in charge of all input, until the Control-Q command (QUIT) is typed.  If you type a letter A, C, E, F, L, M, R, S, or V the rest of the AED command starting with that letter will be displayed.  If the command requires no additional information, it is immediately executed.  Otherwise, it waits for you to finish the command and type a carriage return.  The period is also a command:  call it "dot", and think of "DOS", because its purpose is to call up the DOS Command Mini-Menu.  If you type a line beginning with a non-command character, it is passed on to Applesoft.  Thus you can enter numbered lines, or type immediate mode commands such as NEW or PRINT X(3) or PR#1.If you do leave AED control, typing "&" will enter AED again.  If you have the Autostart Monitor, hitting RESET will re-enter AED.

It is important to realize that you are always in an editing mode.  Even commands can be edited using the edit control keys.

Here is a list of the commands:

Letter Commands

A AUTO line #,increment
C CHANGE /string1/string2/A
E EDIT line #
F FILE = filename to use in
         DOS commands
L LIST [ line #,line # ]
M MANUAL line numbering
R Repeat last LIST command
S SEARCH /string/
V Variable display
. DOS Mini-Menu


Control Commands

^A  Assistance
^C  Clear Scroll Area
^Q  Quit
^X  Clear Edit Area
ESC Edit Next Line


Editing Commands

^B   Cursor to beginning
^D   Delete a character
^E   Cursor to end of line
^Fx  Cursor to next "x"
^I   Begin Insert mode
^M   (RETURN) Submit line
^N   Cursor to end of line
^R   Recall last line edited
^Tx  Delete through next "x"
^T^T Delete to end of line
^V   Next character verbatim
^W   Enter word cursor mode


AED does not have user-defined keyboard macros.  The keyboard macros in PLE are a big selling point; however, the ones you actually end up using in PLE are built-in to AED as actual commands or as part of the DOS Mini-Menu.  Of course, PLE words with both Integer BASIC and Applesoft; AED is only for Applesoft.

If you use Applesoft, are not already firmly addicted to PLE, and if you do not use Integer BASIC, then you should consider picking up a copy of AED.  It is only $40 (same price as PLE), and packs a lot of usefulness for the dollars.
