.TH NE 1 ""
.SH NAME
ne \- Cambridge Text Editor

.SH SYNOPSIS

.B ne
[
.I filename
]
[
.B \-to
.I filename
] [
.B \-with
.I filename
]
   [
.B \-ver
.I filename
]
   [
.B \-opt
.I commands
] [
.B \-init
.I commands
] [
.B \-line
] [
.B \-tabs
]
   [
.B \-tabin
] [
.B \-notabs
] [
.B \-tabout
] [
.B \-help
] [
.B \-id
]

.SH DESCRIPTION

The
.B ne
command runs the latest implementation of the Cambridge text editor which is
generically known as NE, and which runs on a number of different computer
systems. 

A full specification is available in the file
.B NE.spec.ascii,
and any recent changes made since the specification was last updated are in the 
file
.B NE.changes.spec.
For local Cambridge users, a printed version of the specification is available
from Computing Service Sales, at a price of 3 pounds.

If no file name is given in the command line, NE is entered with an empty,
unnamed editing buffer.

If the name of the source file is given as "-", then NE runs as a filter, taking
the text to be edited from the standard input, and writing the resulting text
to the standard output by default. In this case, editing commands must be
specified using either or both of the
.B \-opt
and
.B \-with
options.


.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-to
specifies a destination for the edited file. If omitted, the edited file is
written back on top of the source file, except when the source is the standard
input, in which case the default is to write it to the standard output.

.TP
.B \-with
specifies a file of editing commands to be applied to the source file. If it is
omitted, editing commands are taken from the standard input except when NE is
being run as a filter.

.TP
.B \-ver
specifies a file to which verifications and error messages are written by NE. If
it is omitted, the default is to write to the standard output, unless this is
being used for the main output, in which case the standard error stream is used.

.TP
.B \-opt
specifies a string of editing commands to be applied at the start of editing,
before reading other command input.

.TP
.B \-init
specifies a string of initializing commands which replace those supplied via
the NEINIT environment variable.

.TP
.B \-line
forces NE to operate in line-by-line mode, as a line editor, instead of as a
screen editor.

.TP
.B \-tabs
causes NE to expand tabs to spaces (at a spacing of 8) whenever an input line is
read. The lines which contained tabs are identified, and when they come to be
written out, NE re-inserts as many tabs as possible, except that it does not
insert a tab where a single space will suffice, unless another tab follows.
Note that this does not guarantee that exactly the same tabbed lines are
written out as were read in. Lines which did not contain input tabs are not
written out with tabs.

.TP
.B \-tabin
causes NE to expand tabs to spaces (at a spacing of 8) whenever an input line is
read, but take no action on output.

.TP
.B \-tabout
causes NE to insert tabs into
.I all
output lines. As many tabs as possible are used, except that a tab is never
inserted where a single space will do, unless another tab follows.

.TP
.B \-notabs
suppresses all tab handling. It is useful for over-riding the ETABS environment
variable.

.TP
.B \-help
causes NE to output some basic help for its command syntax.

.TP
.B \-id
causes NE to output the current version number.

.SH DEFAULT MODES
If both the command input and the verification output are connected to a
terminal, NE runs in interactive mode. This affects the way errors are handled,
and also causes prompting to occur in certain circumstances.

NE starts up in screen mode as a fullscreen editor only if the
.B \-line
option is not specified, and also it is running interactively with commands and
verification using the standard input and output.

.SH ENVIRONMENT
When NE starts up, it searches for the environment variable NEINIT. The
contents of this variable are taken as a string of NE commands to be obeyed
before the contents of the
.B \-opt
string.

If the environment variable ETABS is present, NE uses it to set its tab
handling option as follows:

  "tabs"   is equivalent to
.B \-tabs

  "in"     is equivalent to
.B \-tabin

  "out"    is equivalent to
.B \-tabout

  "inout"  is equivalent to
.B \-tabin -tabout

.SH SEE ALSO
.I "Specification of the NE Text Editor",
published by the University of Cambridge Computing Service.

The file
.I NE.spec.ascii
contains a plain text version of the specification.

The file
.I NE.changes.spec
contains details of changes to the program since the specification was last
updated.