About the QED Manual

This chapter includes:

What you'll find in this guide
Typographical conventions
Technical support

What you'll find in this guide

The qed utility is a fullscreen editor for both your console and attached terminals.

This editor has been shipped with QNX since the early days of the QNX 2 operating system. It has been ported to QNX Neutrino for the convenience of the many people who have become accustomed to it. However, it's no longer the preferred editor in QNX Neutrino and its use is deprecated. Consequently, this documentation is provided “as is.”

This documentation has been divided into several major sections:

Tutorial Guide: This section consists of a conversational introduction to the Full Screen Editor (qed). It contains examples which should be attempted on your PC as you read. It is highly recommended that all users of qed read this guide. The first several pages contain a complete reference to all the defined function and cursor keys. It will help you correlate the many functions available. Upon completion of the guide you should be capable of performing most editing tasks. For most users, this may be all you need to know about the editor.
Using qed on non-QNX Terminal Types: This section describes how to configure the system to run qed from attached terminals.
Reference Manual — Editor Commands: This section consists of a detailed description of every command supported by the editor. You will discover that the defined function and cursor keys are in fact implemented as one or more of these commands. Anyone who is going to be using the editor on a regular basis should read the preliminary sections up to the Append command. The description of the Substitute and Global commands are also highly recommended. Should you wish to define your own function key operations then it is imperative that you read and understand all sections.
Defining Macros: This section has been written as a tutorial guide in the writing of macros. It should be sufficient to get you started. However, the best way to learn about macros is to experiment.
Error Messages (Appendix A): This section details the error messages you may get from qed, and explains their meaning.
Quick Reference: This section is a quick overview of the function keys which relate to word processing. They are also discussed in the tutorial introduction and are repeated here as a quick reference.

Typographical conventions

Throughout this manual, we use certain typographical conventions to distinguish technical terms. In general, the conventions we use conform to those found in IEEE POSIX publications. The following table summarizes our conventions:

Reference	Example
Code examples	`if( stream == NULL )`
Command options	`-lR`
Commands	`make`
Environment variables	PATH
File and pathnames	`/dev/null`
Function names	exit()
Keyboard chords	Ctrl-Alt-Delete
Keyboard input	`something you type`
Keyboard keys	Enter
Program output	`login:`
Programming constants	NULL
Programming data types	`unsigned short`
Programming literals	`0xFF`, `"message string"`
Variable names	stdin
User-interface components	Cancel

We use an arrow (→) in directions for accessing menu items, like this:

You'll find the Other... menu item under Perspective-->Show View.

We use notes, cautions, and warnings to highlight important messages:

Notes point out something important or useful.

Cautions tell you about commands or procedures that may have unwanted or undesirable side effects.

Warnings tell you about commands or procedures that could be dangerous to your files, your hardware, or even yourself.

Note to Windows users

In our documentation, we use a forward slash (/) as a delimiter in all pathnames, including those pointing to Windows files.

We also generally follow POSIX/UNIX filesystem conventions.

Navigation buttons

At the top and bottom of our HTML docs, you'll see some or all of these buttons:

Use this button:	To move:
	To the previous part of the document.
	“Up” in the document: In a prose book, this typically takes you to About This Guide. In a reference book, it takes you to the listing of items that start with a given letter. For example, if you're looking at the docs for abs(), this button takes you to the listing of the functions that start with `A`.
	To the keyword index.
	To the next part of the document.

Technical support

To obtain technical support for any QNX product, visit the Support + Services area on our website (www.qnx.com). You'll find a wide range of support options, including community forums.