Editors

In order to write the source code for a computer program, you must use a program called an editor. There are several editors available on your Intranet account. If you are sitting at a SPARC workstation in the lab, you can click the Text Editor button on the toolbar to bring up a simple editor. If you need more editing capabilities, or if you need to telnet to your account (where you will not be able to use the desktop features), you must learn to use one of the other editors on the system.

If you do not see a % prompt, open a terminal window

NOTE: You may experience difficulties with the screen display when scrolling around your editor if you use the default terminal window. If this occurs, use an xterm window instead. To open an xterm window, type

xterm &
at a % prompt, and then start your editor, as shown below.

At the % prompt, type one of the following commands:

pico

to use the pico editor. This editor is recommended for beginners because it is easy to use. It does not have the advanced editing capabilities of the emacs or vi editors. For help, see my on-line pico tutorial. emacs to use the emacs editor. This is the "power user" editor. For help, refer to the on-line emacs reference materials or the book, Learning GNU Emacs By Debra Cameron and Bill Rosenblatt vi to use the vi editor which is included with the Unix operating system. This editor is difficult to use. It is recommended for those who wish to be Unix System Administrators, because in some situations it may be the only editor available. For help, refer to the vi lovers home page or Chris Taylor's Manual or the book, Learning the vi Editor by Linda Lamb.

Page Created by Joy Compton -- jcompton@csupomona.edu
Last Revised: 3/18/99