Introduction to Alpha1 for Editing /Programming

Accessing the Alpha1

Click on the icon Telnet to Alpha1

Signing on to the Alpha1

                -Type in your User Id (press enter key). 

Note: This will be name will be unique to you.

                -Type in your password (press enter key).

Note: The first time you sign on to the Alpha VAX your  password will be  USER .  You will be prompted to change your password.  Passwords need to be 6 characters or more (letters and numbers).  You will asked to verify the change by retyping the new password.

Future Reference: To change the password at a later date.  Type the command SET PASSWORD.

Editing a file

-Type $ EDIT

This will place you into the editor to create or update your program file.

Editor Commands

Change direction of the editor

Changes direction of the editor movement to either forward (right and down) or reverse (left and up).  The direction is shown in the status line in the lower right hand corner of the screen.  It will  be either  FORWARD or REVERSE.

- Press F3

Change mode of the editor

Changes the mode for entering text  to either insert or overstrike.  The mode is shown in the status line in the lower right hand corner of the screen.  It will be either INSERT or OVERSTRIKE.

-Press Ctrl A or ENTER (on numeric keypad)

Cursor Movement

To move the cursor around the screen use the cursor (arrow) keys on your keyboard as  in other applications.

Moving  down a screen

-Press INS (on numeric keypad)

Moving up a screen

-Press DEL (on numeric keypad)

Moving  to beginning of line

-Press Backspace or Ctrl H

Moving to end of line

-Press Ctrl E

Moving by line

Change direction  of editor to direction wanted. (See change direction of editor)

-Press - (on numeric keypad)

      or

-Press the down or up cursor keys

Deleting Character.

Move cursor to position immediately after the character to be deleted .

Note:  This will work like backspace does in other applications.

-Press Ctrl Backspace or Delete

Deleting Words

Move cursor to anywhere on the word or the spaces before the word to be deleted.

-Press +  (on numeric keypad)

Deleting to beginning of line

Move your cursor to the character immediately after where you want the deletions to end.  This command will delete the characters from the beginning of the line to the character before the cursor.

-Press Ctrl U

Deleting Lines

move the cursor to where you want to begin the deletions .

-Press Home (on numeric keypad)

Move cursor to where you want the deletions to end.

-Press F4

-type Cut (press enter)

Note: When deleting a block of lines with no text on them, this command will not work properly.  Please use another deletion command.

Inserting Characters or  Lines

Change mode of editor to insert. (See change mode of editor)

Move cursor to where to begin inserting characters. 

Start typing characters to be inserted.

When want a new line press enter.

Typing Over Characters

Change mode of editor to overstrike. (See change mode of editor)

Move cursor to where to start typing over characters.

Start typing the new characters.  The old character will be typed over.

Finding  character strings

Change direction of editor to appropriate mode. (See change direction of editor)

-Press F1

You will now be prompted to enter a string to search for.

Depending on the direction you chose you will see either

Reverse Find:     or     Forward Find:

-type the string to search for (press enter)

Moving Text

Move the cursor to beginning of text to move

-Press Home (on numeric keypad)

Move the cursor to end of text to move

-Press F4

-Type Cut (press enter)

Note: The text will disappear from the screen and be placed in a buffer.

move the cursor to position where text to be inserted

-Press F4

-Type Paste (press enter)

Copying Text

Move the cursor to beginning of text to copy

-Press Home (on numeric keypad)

Move the cursor to end of text to copy

-Press F4

-Type Copy (press enter)

Move the cursor to position where text to be inserted

-Press F4

-Type Paste (press enter)

Saving and exiting editor

-Press F4

-type EXIT (press enter)

                                or

-Press Ctrl Z

Note: You will prompted to enter a name of  a file when saving for the first time. 

(See naming files below)

Naming files

IMPORTANT: Please follow the following instructions with naming your files.  

The name of the file will consist of 3 parts with the following format filename.ext.  

1. The filename should be 8 characters  or less. 

2. Then type a period. 

3. The extension should reflect the programming language you are using.

Examples of name of files

                Language              Name of Program File

                Fortran                   EXAMPLE.FOR

                Cobol                     PROG1.COB

                C                             TRYIT.C

Note:   When editing, printing and deleting need full  name of file (filename.ext).  At other times when compiling, linking, and running; You will only need the filename with no ext (filename).

Saving file without exiting editor

-Press F4

-type SAVE FILE (press enter)

Note: You will be prompted to enter a name for the file when saving for the first time.

Exiting editor without saving

-press F4

-type QUIT (press enter)

Note: If any changes have been made to the file you will be prompted with the following question

Buffer modifications will not be saved, continue quitting [Yes]?

Press enter if you don’t want to save any changes.  Otherwise type No and press enter and you will be returned to the editor.

Opening a previously created

-press F4

-type OPEN (press enter)

-type filename.ext (press enter)

To see all the files in your library

-type $ DIR  (press enter)  

Note: Notice the files have the following form filename.ext;version. 

To change the name of a file

-type $ RENAME oldfilename.ext  newfilename.ext

Note:  If you forget to put the ext on a file, you can always rename it later.

Example $ RENAME  first     first.for

Print a copy of program

-type $ PRINT filename.ext (press enter)

Note: You can print more than one file at a time with the print command by entering each file separated by commas.

Example: $ PRINT example.lis, sample.dat

Deleting old version of files

-type $ PURGE  (press enter)

This command removes all except for the latest copy of the file.

Note: Please use this command frequently to save room on your library.  Each time you save or execute a program a new version will be saved.   Therefore,  you will need to clean up your library periodically.

Deleting a file

-type $ DELETE filename.ext;version (press enter)

Note: To delete a group of files, you can use a  wildcard deliminator.  The wild card deliminator (*) can be used to replace either the filename, ext, or version.

Example: The command $ DELETE *.EXE;*  will delete all files with the extension of .EXE.

Warning: Please be careful if you type $ DELETE *.*;*.  This will delete all files on your library.

Executing a program

This is a three step process (compile, link, and run).  Each step must be error free before moving to the next step. You need not include the ext with the name of the file for each step.  We will use the system defaults ext for the name of the files.  For example,  the Fortran compiler will look for  filename.FOR.  The linker will look for a filename.OBJ.   The run command will look for filename.EXE.

                First Step.  Compile the program.

                This will depend of the language the program is written in.

 See below for command for a specific language.

                Language              Compiler Command

                Fortran                   $ FORTRAN filename/list  (press enter)

                                Cobol                     $ COBOL filename/list (press enter)

C                             $ CC  filename/list  (press enter)

Note: If errors are encountered during the compilations edit or print  the listing file that is created during compilation.  It will be called filename.LIS. Putting /list after the filename creates a listing file with error messages.  The listing file can be either edited or printed .  However, make the corrections to your program file (not the lis file) and recompile.

                Second Step. Link the program

                                -type $ LINK  filename (press enter)

Third Step.  Run the program.

-type $  RUN filename (press enter)

Mail

                See E-Mail Document  for further Instructions.

Copying files between Alpha1 and PC

See Transferring files on the Alpha1 document for further  Instructions.

Remote access to Alpha1

                Please fill out form available in ACS Main Lab.

Exiting the Alpha1

-type $ LOGOFF (press enter)

You should now be at the menu.

You can press ESC to return the previous menu.