- UTF-8 encoded Unicode support and features
- User interface
- Screen interaction
- Text editing features
- Search functions
- Secure text and file handling
- Other useful features
- Operating environment and portability
- Screenshot with opened pull-down menu and with HTML syntax highlighting.
- Works with UTF-8 text mode terminals or windows like xterm.
- Supports independent mix of text encoding and terminal encoding; can edit UTF-8 text in a Latin-1 terminal or Latin-1 text in a UTF-8 terminal.
- File encoding auto-detection (Latin-1, UTF-8, UTF-16).
-
Editing of mixed encoding files (useful e.g. for mailboxes);
online switching of UTF-8 or Latin-1 interpretation.
- Handles single-width and double-width characters (works with dual-width Han fonts; xterm 145 or newer recommended).
-
Complete handling of combining characters (display,
edit, search, ...).
Partial editing and optional separated display mode.
- Transparent handling of illegal UTF-8 sequences, with visible indications.
- Optional handling of Unicode line ends (line and paragraph separator).
- Coded and mnemonic input support (RFC1345, HTML, TeX and other mnemos supported).
- Character information includes UTF-8 encoding, Unicode value and script.
-
Configurable automatic smart quotes.
-
Bidirectional terminal support (for handling
right-to-left scripts).
- Optional "poor man's bidi" mode (basic input support for right-to-left scripts on non-bidi terminals).
-
Keyboard mapping for input support of non-Latin scripts
on Latin keyboards (mappings for Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew
pre-configured, Chinese and many more can be added).
-
Highlighting (colouring) of certain Unicode Script ranges
(compile-time configurable, Greek and Cyrillic preconfigured).
UTF-8 encoded Unicode support and features:
See also the Unicode howto with information on how to use these features.
- Intuitive and easy operation. No modes. Intuitive cursor position handling, no weird limitations (e.g. at line-end) or insert/append confusion.
- "Geometric" control-key layout for basic cursor movements (also known as "WordStar" layout). (Cursor keys can be used as well, of course.)
-
Use of a "HOP" key which amplifies any subsequent movement command
(and some other commands) in an intuitive sense. This way, a lot of
functions can be achieved quickly without remembering as many
control or function keys.
HOP and function key assignment to numeric keypad such that
most frequently used functions are easily available.
- Two-key commands (starting with escape key) for less frequent functions.
- Mouse control available for all versions (Unix and DOS).
- Pull-down menus and a quick pop-up menu available. Can be navigated and controlled with mouse (click or drag) or keyboard.
-
Additional flags-triggered pull-down menus for Keyboard Mapping and
Smart Quotes settings.
- Scrollbar.
- Configurable visible indications of different line-end types (Unix/DOS/Mac/Unicode line-ends, paragraphs) and TAB characters. TAB width can be toggled online.
-
HTML syntax highlighting distinguishes HTML tags,
HTML comments and JSP.
- Online help.
- View only and restricted modes.
- Composition function for accented characters.
- Optional support of mixed 8/16-Bit character sets.
Works with
hantermorcxterm. - Optional 8 bit character input and output transformation for antique character set switching 7-bit terminals.
User interface:
-
Perfect responsiveness to terminal/window size changes. On resizing
the window, mined will immediately adjust and update its display -
the text cursor position will stay where it was.
Resizing also works while prompting for input (e.g. search text).
- Screen output starting from current position and growing to the top and bottom - on slow (e.g. remote) terminal connections this gives the user a quick visual focus on the cursor position and provides better orientation when paging or searching.
- Display of filename and modification status in window header line and icon.
- Wordstar-compatible keyboard layout option (in addition to basic cursor movement which always uses "topographic layout"). This option includes some WordStar compatibility command supplements.
- Automatic adaptation of Backspace and Delete functions to user preference as set in the environment (stty); additional configuration options.
- Function key sequences for many common terminal types are always
activated (vt100, vt100 application mode, Sun, various xterm
settings, Linux console, HP and Iris workstation X windows, PC
keyboard). The operating environment that is supposed to handle
terminal-specific input setup (termcap/terminfo) is often poorly
configured - with explicitly coded sequences much more function
keys can be recognised than other applications can;
also in many situations of remote operation the mined approach
works better.
Configuration option to select among ambiguous function key sets.
Screen interaction:
- Auto-indentation of new lines (cloning white space of current line).
Auto-indentation is automatically suppressed to support unmodified terminal/mouse copy and paste (by heuristic detection of input speed). - Automatic Back Tab function to revert to the previous matching indentation level.
- Input support for indented pairs of parentheses. Also for Javadoc frames.
- Word/line wrap with left/right margins and first line indentation. (Uses either empty lines or blank/non-blank line ends as paragraph indications.) Optional memory of word-wrap margins between mined invocations.
-
Word/line wrap justification applies auto-indentation with
heuristic detection of numbered items and program source comments.
- Paste between different (including subsequent) sessions of mined.
- Copy/Paste/File write functions with optional append mode.
- Multiple text position markers.
- Input support for HTML tags and attributes (two options).
- Case toggle function handles full Unicode range, including some special cases.
-
Binary transparency including simultaneous handling of different
line end types, null characters, transparent splitting of
overlong lines, and transparent handling of illegal UTF-8 sequences.
Text editing features:
- Search/replace with optional interactive confirmation.
-
Search and replacement patterns can contain embedded newlines.
- Search function for identifier at current cursor position, also across different files.
- Search function for matching parenthesis.
-
Search function for matching HTML tags.
- Repeat function for the two previous search operations.
- Startup search expression option on command line.
- Startup option for line number positioning.
Search functions:
- Consequent checking of any loss of text risk:
- In any case of file writing or other text saving problem mined will continue the editing session instead of exiting.
- No external file other than the original source of the text being edited will be overwritten without confirmation by any text or buffer save operation.
- No accidental quit without prompting for any unsaved changes.
- All file handling errors are reported quoting clear error indications (in contrast to the cryptic messages of many classic Unix tools).
- In case of external interrupts, panic handling attempts to save text to a panic file.
Secure text and file handling:
-
Optional memory of last cursor position when a file save command
is issued, automatic re-positioning in next editing session.
-
Integration of version control systems:
checkout and checkin commands available from File menu.
- Change of file name / working directory association while editing.
- Editing within pipe option (Unix version).
- Suspend function (like ^Z) with autosave.
- Optional Unix/DOS/Mac Line-end conversions.
Other useful features:
- Runs on Unix (Linux, Sun, HP, BSD, etc) and MSDOS/Windows (djgcc, Turbo-C, cygwin, EMX). Used to run on VMS which I cannot check any more.
- Makefiles for various operating environments are included.