1Welcome to acme, the editor/shell/window system hybrid. Acme is a 2complete environment you can use to edit, run programs, browse the 3file system, etc. 4 5You can scroll the text this window by moving the mouse into 6the window (no clicking necessary) and typing the up and down 7arrows. 8 9When you start Acme, you see several windows layered into two 10columns. Above each window, you can see a ``tag line'' (in blue). The 11first thing to notice is that all the text you see is just that: 12text. You can edit anything at will. 13 14For example, in the left column is a directory window. 15If you look at the window's tag line, you will see that it contains 16 17 /usr/glenda/ Del Snarf Get | Look 18 19(This might be truncated if the column is narrow.) 20That is just text. 21 22Each mouse button (1, 2, 3, from left to right) does a different 23thing in Acme: 24 25 * Button 1 can be used to select text (press it, sweep, release it), 26 and also to select the point where text would be inserted in the 27 window. Use it now in your /usr/glenda window. 28 * Button 2 can be used to execute things. For example, use button 1 29 to type "ls -l" before "lib/" in the window showing 30 /usr/glenda. Now use button 2 to select "ls -l lib/" (press 31 it, select, release it). As you can see, button 2 means 32 "execute this". 33 * Button 3 can be used to get things. For example, click button 3 on 34 "lib/" within the "/usr/glenda" window. Can you see how a new window 35 shows the contents of "/usr/glenda/lib"? Button 3 can also be used 36 to search within the body of a window. Just click button 3 on the 37 thing you want to search. Again, you can select something with 38 button 1 and then use button 3 on the selection. 39 40You can double-click with button 1 to select words; a double click at 41the end or beginning of a line selects the whole line. Once you have 42text selected, you can click on it with button 2 to execute the 43selected text. A single click of button 2 would execute the word 44clicked as a command. 45 46Now let's pay attention to the tag line once more. As you can see, 47the left part has a path. That is the name for the window and shows 48also the directory for the thing shown (file/directory/program 49output). When you execute something using button 2, the current 50directory for the command is the directory shown in the left part of 51the tag (if the thing shown is a file, its directory is used). 52 53As you saw before in the example, there are windows labeled 54"/dir/+Errors", that is where Acme shows the output of a command 55executed in "/dir". 56 57Another thing you can see is that tag lines contain words like "New", 58"Del", "Snarf", etc. Those are commands understood (implemented) by 59Acme. When you request execution of one of them, Acme does the job. 60For example, click with button 2 on "Del" in the 61"/usr/glenda/+Errors" window: it's gone. 62 63The commands shown by Acme are just text and by no means special. Try 64to type "Del" within the body of the window "/usr/glenda", and then 65click (button-2) on it. 66 67These are some commands understood by Acme: 68 * Newcol: create a new column of windows 69 * Delcol: delete a column 70 * New: create a new window (edit it's tag to be a file name and you 71 would be creating a new file; you would need to click on "Put" to 72 put the file in the file system). 73 * Put: write the body to disk. The file is the one named in the tag. 74 * Get: refresh the body (e.g. if it's a directory, reread it and 75 show it). 76 * Snarf: What other window systems call "Copy". 77 * Paste: Can you guess it? 78 * Exit: exit acme 79 80Acme likes to place new windows itself. If you prefer to change the 81layout of a window, you only need to drag the layout box at the left 82of the tag line and drop it somewhere else. The point where you drop 83it selects the column where the window is to be placed now, as well 84as the line where the window should start. You can also click the 85layout box to enlarge its window a small amount (button 1), as much 86as possible without obscuring other tag lines in the column (button 872), and to fill the whole column (button 3). You can get your other 88windows back by button-1- or button-2-clicking the layout box. 89 90This is mostly what you need to get started with Acme. You are 91missing a very useful feature: using combinations (chords) of mouse 92buttons to do things. You can cut, paste, snarf, and pass arguments 93to programs using these mouse chords. You can read this in the 94acme(1) manual page, but it's actually extremely simple: Select a 95region with button 1 but don't release the button. Now clicking 96button 2 deletes the selected text (putting it into the snarf 97buffer); clicking button 3 replaces the selected text with the snarf 98buffer. That's it! 99 100For more information, read /sys/doc/acme/acme.ps (you can just 101button-3 click on that string to view the file). 102 103