E3(1)

📦
version 2.82 · 2 versions
, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

👑 E3 — a mini text editor, bestie 💖

okay so. listen. this is the manual for e3, a mini text editor, and I need you to understand how iconic this is before we even start. it's E3(1) in the General Commands Manual, she's tiny, she's assembled, she's giving main character energy in under ten kilobytes. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

e3 — a mini text editor 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

e3[ws|em|pi|vi|ne] [filename]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so e3 is a complete mini application and the way that she is written fully in assembler... no cap. her code size is less than 10000 byte. that's the whole girl. 😭💖

there's a status & input line, and that's where you type in your filenames, blocknames, find-texts and line numbers. so useful, so versatile.

the editor commands come in families, like a whole friend group: Wordstar-like, or Emacs, or Pico, or vi, or Nedit. pick your vibe ✨

for online help, press ESC:h in vi mode, otherwise Alt-H. easy.

heads up bestie: this man page describes the Wordstar key bindings only. that's the flavor we're serving here. 🎀

⌨️ KEYBOARD COMMANDS FOR WS ⌨️

okay here comes the whole list, no skipping, every single one is a baddie:

  • ^A — go word left
  • ^C — go page down
  • ^D — go right
  • ^E — go up
  • ^F — go word right
  • ^G — delete current character
  • ^H — delete left character
  • ^I — tabulator
  • ^J — get online help
  • ^KB — set block start marker
  • ^KC — copy current block
  • ^KD — save file and load a new one
  • ^KK — set block end marker
  • ^KQ — abort editing and exit. Confirm with Y or y that your changes are lost. (dramatic but necessary 😭)
  • ^KR — insert a file as a new block
  • ^KS — save file and continue editing
  • ^KV — move current block inside file
  • ^KW — save a block into a file
  • ^KX — save file and exit
  • ^KY — delete text a block
  • ^KZ — suspend (simple ^Z in other editor modes)
  • ^L — repeat last ^QF or ^QA
  • ^M — enter new line
  • ^QA — Search & Replace (a prompt appears). for options compare ^QF.
  • ^QB — go to block begin
  • ^QC — go to end of file
  • ^QD — go to end of line
  • ^QE — go to top of screen: 1st columne, 1st line
  • ^QF — find a text string (a prompt appears). valid options are Case sensitive and Backward. you could abort via pressing ^U. this options are equal to e3em, e3pi, e3ne, but their abort keys are ^G and ^C.
  • ^QG — delete character under cursor
  • ^QG — delete character left of cursor
  • ^QH,^Q(Del) — delete up to line begin
  • ^QI — go to line number (prompt appears)
  • ^QK — go to block end
  • ^QR — go to file begin
  • ^QS — go to line begin
  • ^QV — go to last position of find
  • ^QW — go to previous word
  • ^QX — go to bottom of window (last line, end of line)
  • ^QY — delete to line end
  • ^QZ — go to next word
  • ^R — go page up
  • ^S — go left
  • ^T — delete to next word
  • ^U — undo the last operation. also abort input in status line (this is used for ^QI,^QF,^KR,^KW etc.)
  • ^V — toggle insert mode
  • ^W — scroll up
  • ^X — go down
  • ^Y — delete current line
  • ^Z — scroll down

↩️ UNDO OPERATION DETAILS ↩️

so e3 has an UNDO mode starting in v2.2. yes bestie, she can take it back. 💅

there is no predefined UNDO level count. you can expect to UNDO at least one last insert-, delete-, overwrite- or sed_pipe-operation, but in most cases there are lots of UNDO stages available. slay.

e3 has a fixed size undo buffer and will use an external helper file if some deleted data is bigger sized than the undo buffer. and this buffer is organized as a ring, overwriting older UNDO information if necessary. so one never can say exactly how many UNDO operations are possible. it's giving mystery, it's giving chaos. 🙈

for using the UNDO press one of:

  • ^U — in Wordstar mode
  • ^QU — in Pico mode
  • ^_ — in Emacs mode
  • u — in vi command mode
  • ^U — in Nedit mode

🧮 BUILT IN CALCULATOR 🧮

not her having a calculator built in?? for some simple arithmetic calculations inside your text. iconic behavior fr fr.

place cursor at begin of the task, i.e. something like:

-3.002*-(2--3)=

and press one of:

  • ^KN — in Wordstar mode
  • ^QC — in Pico mode
  • ^X^N — in Emacs mode
  • # — in vi command mode
  • ^K — in Nedit mode

this will insert the result into text. 🎀

use the values between -999999999999.999999 ... 999999999999.999999 with up to 6 decimal digits and the operators +-*/ and parenthesis ( ). also available are p for constant PI and r for accessing the result of last calculation. math queen 🧚✨

🔄 RUNTIME MODE SWITCHING 🔄

you can switch to other editor mode by pressing one of:

  • ^KM — in Wordstar mode
  • ^QM — in Pico mode
  • altX — in Emacs mode
  • <ESC>; — in vi command mode
  • ^E — in Nedit mode

e3 will set a prompt SET MODE . now enter one of e3ws, e3em, e3pi, e3vi, e3ne for setting Wordstar-like or Emacs or Pico or vi or Nedit style. glow up whenever you want 💖

⚙️ OPTIONS ⚙️

  • filename — e3 accepts a filename for text editing. switch the editor mode depending of the binary name, one of e3ws, e3em, e3pi, e3vi, e3ne

📁 FILES 📁

  • e3 — is an assembled executable for Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, BeOS(tm), QNX(tm). e3ws, e3em, e3pi, e3vi, e3ne are symbolic links to e3.
  • e3.exe — is an assembled executable for 32 bit Win versions like 95/98/ME/etc.
  • e3c — is a 'C' compiled executable for some other platforms, optional built, supporting WS key bindings only.
  • e3arm — is a new experimental (alpha code quality) assembled executable for ARM Linux, optional built (identical e3, but no arithmetics and no UNDO available).
  • e3.hlp — help text file (for e3c only)
  • e3.res — error message text file (for e3c only)
  • e3-16 — e3-16, e3-16.com, e3-16e.exe are special bonus files for 16 bit operating systems ELKS (==Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset) and DOS, supporting WS key bindings only.

e3 is Copyright (c) 2000,01,02,03 Albrecht Kleine

this program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

this program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

you should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

🐛 BUGS 🐛

there probably are some, but I don't know what they are yet. (the most honest sentence in any manpage, periodt 💀)

okay that's the whole page bestie, you ate it up 💅✨ this was E3(1) from the General Commands Manual, and the footer said E3(1) again — so yeah, she opens and closes with her own name, as she should. go forth and edit, queen 👑🦋💖

📦 where this page comes from