The ee Editor on IS Unix Services

The ee editor is a very easy-to-use text editor available on our Unix systems. You can use it on any terminal capable of full-screen working, for example a VT100 terminal, via a PC or Mac running ssh or telnet, a terminal window on a Unix workstation, or via Exceed from WTS.

This web page has been produced by converting IS document 125 "Using the ee Editor on Unix Systems" to HTML.

• Starting ee

• Text and Commands

• Using Menus

• Further Commands

• Invoking ee from Mail and other Programs

• Quitting ee

Starting ee

To edit a file simply type ee followed by the filename at your Unix prompt, for example:

ee mytext

If a file of that name exists, the start of the file is then displayed on the screen, otherwise an empty file of that name is created.

Full details of the ee command can be seen by typing

man ee

at your Unix prompt.

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Text and Commands

Unlike some other editors, there are no special modes to worry about. Typing ordinary text will insert it into the document at the position of the cursor, and commands are provided by [Ctrl] key combinations, a list of which is shown perma­nently at the top of the screen as follows:

^[ (escape) menu  ^e search prompt  ^y delete line    ^u up     ^p prev page
^a ascii code     ^x search         ^z undelete line  ^d down   ^n next page
^b bottom of text ^g begin of line  ^w delete word    ^l left
^t top of text    ^o end of line    ^v undelete word  ^r right  Note: ^ means
^c command        ^k delete char    ^f undelete char            hold down Ctrl
===============================================================================

The caret symbol (^) indicates that the [Ctrl] key should be held down while pressing the relevant key. On most keyboards, the cursor arrow keys will work correctly as well as the [Ctrl] commands for cursor movement, and some keyboards also have [Page Up], [Page Down] and [Delete] keys which can be used.

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Using Menus

You can call up a menu of additional commands by pressing [Ctrl+[] or [Esc]. This main menu appears as follows:

=========================== +---------------------+ ===========================
                            | main menu           |
Text and Commands           |                     |
                            | leave editor        |
                            | help                |
Unlike some other editors,  | file operations     | s to worry
about. Typing ordinary text | redraw screen       | document at the 
position of the cursor, and | settings            |  [Ctrl] key
combinations, a list of whi | search              | t the top of the
screen as follows:          | miscellaneous       |
                            |                     |
^[ (escape) menu  ^e search | press Esc to cancel |   ^u up     ^p prev page
^a ascii code     ^x search +---------------------+   ^d down   ^n next page

The cursor will be over the top menu item. leave editor in this case.

To select a menu item, move the cursor down to the required item using the cursor motion commands or arrow keys and press the Enter key. Some items call up a further menu.

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Further Commands

Typing [Ctrl+C] will cause a prompt command: to appear at the bottom of the screen and the panel at the top of the screen to be replaced by the following list of commands:

help : get help info  |file  : print file name         |line : print line #
read : read a file    |char  : ascii code of char      |0-9 : go to line "#"
write: write a file   |case  : case sensitive search   |exit : leave and save
!cmd : shell "cmd"    |nocase: ignore case in search   |quit : leave, no save
expand: expand tabs   |noexpand: do not expand tabs
===============================================================================

Text and Commands


Unlike some other editors, there are no special modes to worry
about. Typing ordinary text will insert it into the document at the 
position of the cursor, and commands are provided by [Ctrl] key
combinations, a list of which is shown permanently at the top of the
screen as follows:






===============================================================================

command: 

To obey one of these commands, simply type the command name at the prompt and press the Enter key. Most of the commands are also available via the main menu, so you can choose your favourite way of doing some tasks. Commands may be abbreviated, as long as that abbreviation is unique. For example, as no other command starts with a q, you can quit the editor without saving your changes by typing the sequence [Ctrl+C] [q] [Enter].

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Invoking ee from Mail and other Programs

A number of programs, including the pine> mailer, call a text editor directly. The default editor on IS Unix Services is ee.

Tip for mail users: to incorporate a file into a mail message, you can use the read command on the [Ctrl+C] menu.

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Quitting ee

Leaving the editor is achieved by selecting the top item (leave editor) in the main menu, which calls the following further menu:

Text and Commands           +---------------------+
                            | leave menu          |
                            |                     |
Unlike some other editors,  | save changes        | s to worry
about. Typing ordinary text | no save             | document at the
position of the cursor, and |                     |  [Ctrl] key
combinations, a list of whi | press Esc to cancel | t the top of the
screen as follows:          +---------------------+

So the usual method of finishing an editing session is to type the key sequence [Esc] [Enter] [Enter].

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This page last modified July 8, 2004 by Brian Alston