SCE - Introduction
"Sce" (and its executable component "screun") is a simple,
terminal-only, text-editor for all variants of Unix (Linux
included).
The speed, minimal memory footprint, simplicity of use, and
intuitive interface makes "sce" suitable to use in 99% of every day
tasks, from admin ones or simple on-the-run programming.
To "sce" user can use classic emacs-style Ctrl+X editing commands,
but sce is designed to work one-handed: all commands are keyboard
keys (or sequences of them). This is achieved by taking advantage
of the always forgotten F1-F8 keys (when available, "sce" can
work without them).
This is an screenshot of a running "sce" session. Note the last
line, with the F1-F4 and F5-F8 key labels.
Characteristics
General
- Intuitive and one-handed interface.
- Very fast.
- Reads all file in memory (fast after entry, but warn when reading
very big files).
- UTF-8 support (from 6.00 and ahead version).
- Doesn't like tabs (treated as special characters, there is an entry
option "-t" to expand them).
- Find, Repeat Find. Replace Next/In Block/In All file.
- Go to line/begin/end commands.
- Autoindent (switchable on entry or after).
- Copy/Move/Delete text block; Read and Save text block from/to file commands.
- Read-only mode (on entry with "-r" or activable forth and back
by commands).
- Column delete, and empty column insert commands (very useful to manage
source indentation).
- Unlimited number of lines and unlimited line length (the limit is
the available memory).
Supported Terminals
SCE does not includes Curses, and is designed to work ONLY
with:
- HP-TERM0 terminals (all HP terminals and hpterm Xwindows client).
- aixterm terminals (aixterm IBM-AIX Xwindows client) .
- xterm terminals (xterm X11windows client. A small keyboard
redefinition can be convenient, see the INSTALL file in src directory)
- dtterm terminals (dtterm HP-UX Xwindows client)
- Putty, Kconsole, MacOSX Termimal,
gnome-terminal, ... Due to standarization of Xterm, sce
is know to also work with these and many other terminal emulators.
When feasible, "sce" takes profit from features exclusives to these
terminals.
Also, for compatibilty, SCE suports:
- vt100 terminals (and similars, such as vt102, vt220, xterm
vt100 mode, etc...). Note that vt100 mode is not the prefferred mode
for SCE, mainly because the editor is less friendly in this
mode due to the lack of function keys. Anyway, even in this mode,
"sce" still maintains the one-hand useability.
Supported platforms
"Sce" has been compiled and tested on the following platforms:
- Linux, all variants.
- AIX.
- MacOSX.
- SunOS
When possible, binary versions of the program are available from
the FTP download.
Documentation
User manual
Due to the intuitive design of the "sce" interface a manual is
seldom needed.
Lack of time has precluded the translation of
the original spanish
Sce documentation
(PDF format) - note that the manual corresponds to the 1990 version
of sce. Actual versions doesn't have line limitations.
Update history
"Sce" is a very old project that dates back from 1987 (thirty years!).
Its original intend was to replace vi, mainly for
users who don't want to learn the subtilities of the visual editor
(or cordially hate it).
Also, sorry, the
update history
is only available in spanish.
License
"Sce" license is GNU. GPLv3;
except for the UTF-8 decoder that is
Copyright © by Bjoern Hoehrmann
Keyboard Help
All usual keyboard editing keys work with "sce".
Besides these, there are emacs-style "Ctrl-X" sequences defined (press "Ctrl-G" to
see them anytime):
Defined Controls:
CTRL-A Begin of line CTRL-O Insert Line
CTRL-B Left (Backward) CTRL-P Up (Previous)
CTRL-C Ascii(3 next chars) CTRL-Q -
CTRL-D Delete Char CTRL-R Previous Page
CTRL-E End of line CTRL-S -
CTRL-F Right (Forward) CTRL-T + CTRL-T ABANDON
CTRL-G This Help CTRL-U Delete Line
CTRL-H Delete left char CTRL-V Next Page
CTRL-I Tab (8 positions) CTRL-W Scroll Down
CTRL-J Return CTRL-X Insert ON/OFF
CTRL-K Delete to End Line CTRL-Y Next MenuLine
CTRL-L Refresh Page CTRL-Z Scroll Up
CTRL-M Return
CTRL-N Down (Next) ESC + ESC Save+Quit
Note the extremely useful ESC+ESC sequence.
By the way, remember also
Ctrl-T,Ctrl-T. With this two sequences you are done
with most "sce" useability.
Other not-so-evident keys (doesn't work in some terminals):
CTRL-Up Scrolls screen up 1 line
CTRL-Down Scrolls screen down 1 line
CTRL-PrevPag Begin file
CTRL-NextPag End file
Vt100 Mode
For terminals where the "F1-F8" keys are not available, "sce" can work
using only the numeric ("app") keypad. This is also a very useful
and fast-typing mode.
When activated ("-a" ansi option) the numeric-app-keypad is mapped to
replace "F1-F8" keys as follows (press "Ctrl-G" anytime to see this help,
another "Ctl-G" gives you the previous help menu):
Each item in MenuLine corresponds to
application keypad (numeric keypad) keys:
App7 App8 App9 ## App4 App6 ## App1 App2 App3
When NO MENU is selected (default) the keypad is:
+--------+--------+--------+
/ | Begin | ^ |Previous|
/ | Line | | (up) | Page |
+--------+--------+--------+
|7 8 9| | <-- | Next | --> |
|4 5 6| | (Left) |MenuLine| (Right)|
|1 2 3| +--------+--------+--------+
| 0 .| | End | |(down)| Next |
| Line | v | Page |
\ +--------+--------+--------+
\ | Insert Mode | Delete |
\| ON/OFF | Char |
|_________________|________|
Downloads, HTTP site
You can download all versions of sce at the
HTTPS sce site
(The FTP site has been taken down)
