Introduction
Qedit aims to provide everything an MPE or HP-UX programmer could need to write COBOL, PowerHouse, or other programs, and to prepare documentation. Therefore, Qedit has Line mode for batch editing and full-screen mode for interactive editing. On HP terminals, Qedit's full-screen mode is called Visual mode. On VT terminals, Qedit's full-screen mode is called Screen mode. See Introduction.
As of HP-UX 11.0, HP has dropped support for block-mode terminals. For this reason, full-screen editing as implemented on HP3000 computers only works on HP-UX versions earlier than 11.0. On HP-UX 11.0 or later, full-screen editing is available in Screen mode (Set Visual Screen On) on VT-type terminals or in Visual Blockemulation emulation (Set Visual Blockemulation On) on HP-type terminals.
As its name implies, Blockemulation emulates block-mode operations by reading each line one by one instead of reading the whole screen in a single operation. Depending on the type of connection, this process might take a few seconds as the cursor moves down the screen.
Qedit's Visual mode is a powerful but friendly full-screen editor designed specifically for programmers. It gives you full access to the editing capabilities of your terminal in block-mode, with low system overhead. You can move, copy, mark and delete blocks of text with Visual's cut-and-paste functions, and page backward and forward through your file with function keys. To use Visual mode, you must have an HP terminal or an HP terminal emulator (e.g., Reflection from WRQ).
In Visual mode, you have access to all Line mode commands (including UDCs, command files, compiling, linking and running programs, shell scripts, and string searching and changing). Qedit's search and replace functions aim to be simple, fast and powerful (e.g., ignore embedded words, etc.). The Undo command allows you to cancel any previous edits to your file, working back to the state at which you started. Using the optional Open and Shut feature, you can switch between files instantly.
Visual mode is a good introduction to the HP operating systems for users who don't work on HP computers all day. Those who may particularly benefit are novice users, or users who run Qedit only to update a report skeleton once a week. These occasional users no longer have to memorize editing commands. Visual mode provides a familiar environment where novices can make changes to the entire screen, just as they do on PC editors. You can even configure some electronic mail packages (HPDesk, elm), to put your users directly into Visual mode when they edit a message.