Qedit and Quad Comparision

If you are moving from MPE to HP-UX, you may find yourself looking for a replacement for the Quad editor on MPE. Qedit is an alternative that runs on both platforms.

Here is a question received by technical support:

I have just one last job that I need to convert from Quad to Qedit, and I'm having a little trouble. I'm going to paste the code for quad and explain what it's doing and hopefully you can send me back some working Qedit code.

:DATA !quad
t dmovltag
d a i :-:(25/25)
c 16/25 t :     -1000: a
c 26/27 t :GL: a
c 36/39 t :PTFE: a
c 40/55 t :OVERLIMIT CHARGE: a
k dmvsaovl
e
We will start with the delete line. The code deletes all lines with '-' in column 25/25. The next set of changes appears to be adding verbage to the columns specified. The verbage is in between ':' and ':'. Let me know if you can help me with this. Thanks.

Most Quad jobs can be converted to Qedit, and this one is no exception. Here is the same task done in Qedit:

qedit
t dmovltag
d "-"(25/25)
c 16/25 :     -1000: @
c 26/27 :GL: @
c 36/39 :PTFE: @
c 40/55 :OVERLIMIT CHARGE: @
k dmvsaovl
e

Notice that the text, keep and exit commands are identical. The delete command just needs to delete any lines with '-' in column 25. The c (change) command is almost the same (remove the "t:" and change the "a" to "@" --all lines).

If I was putting this into production, I would change the commands to be dq, cq, which is delete quiet and change quiet, which would stop the lines from being liste out.

Differences Between Quad and Qedit

The biggest difference between Quad and Qedit is the special Quad way of keeping track of file changes in a separate file. Qedit does not do this. The second difference is that Qedit has an extensive full-screen mode that includes Cut and Paste, function keys to move ahead and back a page, search functions, and much more.

When shifting from Quad to Qedit, you may find our comparison chart helpful (keep in mind that we are not Quad users, so our comparison is generated from the documentation only).

 

Quad

Qedit

Version

January 1993

5.5 -  May 2004

Undo any or all changes

Yes

Yes

Full-screen editing

Limited

Yes - extensive

Cancel most recent command

Yes

Yes

Fast keep

Yes

 

Show and keep changes only

Yes

 

Recovery from system failures

Yes

Yes

Compile programs

Yes

Yes

Execute MPE command

Yes

Yes

Modify allows multiple changes

Yes

Yes

Online help

Yes

Yes

Strings specification

Yes, mixed characters with octal/hex/decimal codes

Yes, mixed characters with decimal codes (Set Dec On)

Disable system commands

QUADNOMPE

Set Work Sys

Open file for read-only

QUADREADONLY

Text, Browse

Size of workfile

QUADFILESIZE

Set Work

Answer Yes to questions

QUADYES

Individual commands

Open temporary files

Yes

Yes

MPE/XL redo

Yes

Yes

MPE colon prefix optional

Yes

Yes

Prompt

/

/

Stacked commands

Yes

Yes

Shortened commands

Yes

Yes

Range

[Range File] [Line Range] [Version] [Including String]

 | [Excluding String]

[Filename] [Rangelist]

Line number

Yes

Yes

First and last line

First, F, Last, L

First, [, Last, ]

Current line

*

*

String as rangelist

Yes

Yes

String delimiters

Special characters except # % $ / @ ! * + - . , ( ) < or >

"|\~{}[]_@?!#>%&:'

Control characters

# followed by character or decimal value

Set Dec On and ' followed by decimal value

Octal values

% followed by octal characters

No except in =

Hexadecimal values

$ followed by hex characters

No except in =

Search columns window

Yes ()

Yes (), Set Window

Pattern search string

Yes (Wild)

Yes (Pattern)

Last search string

""

""

Default search options

Literal, no Wild, no Case

String, no Pattern, case sensitive

Pattern characters

! = any single special character.
# =any single numeric digit.
^ = single alphabetic character either lower or upper case.
? = any single character, alpha, numeric or special.
@ = zero or more characters.

! = reserved for future use.
# = any single numeric digit.
^ = reserved for future use.
? = any alpha or numeric character.
@ = zero or more characters.
~ = zero or more spaces
& = escape character, use next character as literal

Regular expressions

 

Yes

Relative line numbers

+/-

+/-

String range

Yes "begin"/"end"

Yes "begin"/"end"

External file

Yes <Range File> or ^rangefile

Yes

Modify external file

Yes

No

Last external file

<>

$

Unnumbered file

Filename:U

Text filename,Unn

File equate

Yes, * prefix

Yes, automatic

Versions

Yes

No

Access previously modified lines

Yes MODS

No

Display modified lines

Show

Default

Display info on printout

Header

No

Sent output to printer

Offline (QUADLIST)

LP, LPA, LPB

Do not display line numbers

Unnumbered

Quiet (Q)

Truncate or wrap printed lines

Truncate

No

Workfile name

Q1234567

QEDITSCR or QED12345

 

 

 

Insert new text lines

Add

Add

Empty specified lines

Blank

No (Change)

Merge lines (blend in spaces)

Blend

MergeJ

Undo previous edit

Cancel

Undo

Cancel undo

Cancel-Cancel

Undo Redo

Search-replace

Change

Change

Undo all changes (revert)

Clear

Undo All

Copy columns

Colcopy

Colcopy, Hold/Replace

Move columns

Colmove

Colmove

Copy lines

Copy

Add =

Remove blank lines

Deblank

Delete "~" (p)

Use MPE Debug

Debug

No

Remove lines

Delete

Delete

Downshift lines

Downshift

Proc Down

Create copy of each line

Duplicate

No

Terminate program

Exit

Exit

Find string

Find

Find

Prevent further changes

Freeze

No

Move lines

Gather

Add <

Online help

Help

Help

Display list of versions

Index

No

Save current changes

Keep

Keep

List lines

List

List

Merge lines (replace)

Merge

Merge

Modify individual lines

Modify

Modify

Execute system commands

Yes : optional

Yes, : optional

Create a new empty file

New

Add, New

Full-screen mode

Page

Visual

Number of lines in full-screen

PageSize

Set Visual Above Below

Run another copy of the program

QUAD

Run

Display a character string

Quote

Q

Modify/execute previous command

Redo

Redo, Before

Renumber lines

Renumber

Renum

Replace entire lines

Replace

Replace

Save workfile

Save

Text, Open, Shut

Display performance statistics

Stats

No

Submit a job

Stream

Stream

Set tab stops

Tabs

Set Tabs

Read new file to edit

Text

Text

Undo changes on lines

Undo

No

Upshift text

Upshift

Proc Up

Display current state

Verify

Verify

Insert blank lines

Whiten

No

Execute editor commands

Xecute

Use