VSI OpenVMS Forum

I wrote a short survival guide for the EVE editor. Fellow OpenVMS newbies may find it useful. Suggestions for improvement are welcome.

https://papa.sdf.org/cave/vms/a-bit-about-eve.html

UPDATE: I changed the URI.

some references to documentation
https://docs.vmssoftware.com/vsi-openvm ... al/#EVE_CH

EVE is written in TPU
https://docs.vmssoftware.com/vsi-openvm ... ser-guide/
https://docs.vmssoftware.com/vsi-openvm ... ef-manual/

Open the EVE command line with DO (keypad -)

Historically, the DO key is located on F16. As the regular PC keyboard has only 12 function keys, it depends on your terminal emulation how F16 is mapped (common choices are Shift-F6, or Ctrl-F6).

Note that EVE supports multiple keypads.

I assume the above describe the default EVE keypad.

SET KEYPAD EDT will switch to EDT keypad, which a lot of VM people are familar with.

SET KEYPAD WPS will switch to WPS keypad, which probably nobody knows (WPS was a DEC word processor from the 80's - ALLIN1).

It is also possible to setup ones own keypad. I use a total custom keypad design (no gold key!).

lt of the default key mapping is dependant on termnal type - including the (optional) keypad.

The default mapping for VT100 does have the full keypad, and maps DO to PF4, usually the KP -, and Help to PF2, usually the KP / key.

If you press the Help key you get a grhical display of the keypad, otherways DO (default PF4) the enter HELP KEY does the same.

Note there are subtle differences from the EDT layout and effect of some keys.

Chris

And in case someone wonders about my keypad layout:

PF1: Exit.
PF2: Quit.
PF3: Goto top.
PF4: Goto bottom.

KP0: Undo delete.
KP1: Goto begin of line.
KP2: Goto middle of line.
KP3: Goto end of line.
KP4: Change forward/reverse direction.
KP5: Change insert/overstrike mode.
KP6: Change 80/132 character width.
KP7: Delete character.
KP8: Delete word.
KP9: Delete line.

Minus: Join lines.
Comma: Split lines.
Enter: Insert line.
Period: Goto next word.

F7: Spawn.
F8: Mark primarytarget.
F9: Goto mark primarytarget.
F10: Mark secondarytarget.
F11: Goto mark secondarytarget.
F12: Display two windows.
F13: Display one window.
F14: Change window.

Help: Activate help.
Do: Prompt for command line command.

F17: Delete to begin of line.
F18: Delete to end of line.
F19: Insert blank lines.
F20: Delete blank lines.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I've changed the OpenVMS User's Manual reference to link to VSI's updated version, mentioned alternative mappings for the DO key, and clarified assumptions about the terminal emulator used.

This is a very useful resource, thanks for making it! I'm reminded of my first year in college, looking at a printed photocopied "getting started" guide to the EVE editor in the library lab of Wyse VT200-compatible terminals.

I hadn't really tested the keypad mapping until now, but PuTTY on Windows does a nice job. The top row of the number pad work like PF1 to PF4, so you can push "/" for help, and "-" for DO, and it looks fairly close to the VT200 layout. A real LK201-style keyboard has terminal functions where F1-F3 and F5 are on a PC keyboard, so the numbering of the top row goes from F6-F13, Help, Do, then F16-F19 immediately above PF1-PF4 at the top row of the numpad. So you do likely have to use Shift- or Ctrl- to get F11-F19.

As a long-time Vim user (RIP, Bram Moolenaar), I'm grateful that Vim's Git source compiles and runs quite nicely on VMS. So I use vim and its color syntax highlighting for most of my editing needs, but it's nice to learn more about EVE.

I know at least two interesting things about TPU. You can use it as a sort of quasi-Perl or awk to do automated editing of files. Some of the GNV ports have .TPU files that modify the upstream GNU code. Also, the Freeware CD archive has a version of the vi editor implemented in TPU. I think one of the GNV packages used to install it automatically. The default DCL command for "VI" in VMS is the CDA "DDIF" compound document format viewer, which I doubt anyone here has ever used. Or have you?

https://www.digiater.nl/openvms/freeware/v50/vitpu/

The DDIF viewer has probably been invoked accidentally 10000x more than it has been on purpose. The battle over compound document formats in the 1990s was COM/Microsoft vs. OpenDoc/Bento, and the first was vastly more popular, due to Microsoft Office. "DIGITAL Document Interchange Format" wasn't on anyone's mind. These days, the .zip archive format is the universal compound document interchange file format (used for .jar, .apk, ODF to name a few).

EVE and TPU are very powerful.

TPU is really a Pascal like programming language with some editor builtins.

So it is absolutely possible to code editing scripts in it. Not quite as powerful as Perl, but way more readable!

Back in the 1990's there was an mail-list INFO-TPU dedicated to TPU and EVE.

You can find the source code for EVE in SYS$EXAMPLES:EVE$*.TPU (about 60000 lines of code).

EVE can actually be customized at 3 levels:

1) EVE$INIT logical pointing to a .EVE file with EVE commands

2) TPU$COMMAND logical pointing to a .TPU file with TPU code (for starters one can just put in ones EVE commands with underscore instead of space and a semicolon at end of line - but then one can start writing procedures with control structures and ...).

3) TPU$SECTION logical pointing to .TPU$SECTION file with "compiled code" / "binary dump of loaded code". You can either create one from standard + incremental modifications or create a complete one from scratch.

I've long ago redefined the DO command in my EVE$INIT to CTRL/D, and the FIND command to CTRL/F. Not only are they easy to remember, but they work with any keyboard, and is actually quicker to reach with the fingers on the 'home' keys.

If I find myself on a customer site with a PC keyboard trying to edit their SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM, it takes only a moment to create an EVE$INIT.EVE with

Define Key = CTRL/F Find
Define Key = CTRL/D Do

I no longer miss the DO key.