Opening a file

[blakemcbride]

Greetings,

If I execute: sciteco myfile
All works as expected.

However, if I execute: sciteco
And then do: *EBmyfile$$
myfile doesn't appear on the screen even if I try the typical teco P command.

How can I read and display a file after starting sciteco?

Thanks!

[rhaberkorn]

And then do: *EBmyfile$$
myfile doesn't appear on the screen even if I try the typical teco P command.

EB should work just fine. You are probably not in the directory you expect to be. When called without arguments, SciTECO opens the session. This is either per VCS repository or otherwise a global session (stored in ~/.teco_session). In this session, the current working directory is stored as well. This behavior can be disabled by setting 0U[session.savedir] after munging sessions.tes in ~/.teco_ini. I remember you weren't happy with SciTECO's directory persistence in the past and I gave you the same hint.
You can check the current working directory by looking into the $ (dollar) register, eg. type G$ (and rub out afterwards).
You can change the current working directory with the FG command.

P is not supported and not necessary in SciTECO. It may be repurposed in the future - most likely as a "go to the previous word" command.

[rhaberkorn]

Note, you can always use an absolute path or path relative to HOME in EB as well and navigate your way by pressing Tab, just like in most UNIX shells! If you decide, you need to work in a different directory for a while, go to that directory using FG (corresponds to cd in shell). With the default value of session.savedir, this new directory will be persisted when you quit. The next time you open SciTECO from any other directory (if it's not a VCS, but that's also not enabled by default), the state from the last time you quit is restored, including the directory. The idea is that if you are working on a set of related files (eg. source code of a program), you will also want to be in their base directory. If we restore all the files, we should also restore the working directory as well. This also mimics how most GUI editors work when you restart them.

But as I said, disabling savedir is easy. Make sure your ~/.teco_ini looks like this:

EM^EQ[$SCITECOPATH]/session.tes$
0U[session.savedir]

Ie. add that one line after the already existing mung.

[rhaberkorn]

And then do: *EBmyfile$$

Just another remark. SciTECO does not need double escape ($$) to apply any changes. Everything is executed immediately. So, EBmyfile$ suffices. If you do want to terminate/commit a command line immediately after opening myfile, you would actually have to type EBmyfile$$$ since $$ is only a regular command in SciTECO instead of an immediate editing command, so you don't have to fear typing two escapes in a row accidentally as part of a command as you do in classic TECOs. You don't have to do that very often. Command line termination frees resources required for undoing/rubout. Usually you can do an entire editing session without ever committing the command line up until the final EX$$.