ILE:  What is it?
==================

ILE is an input line editor.  It allows you to edit the lines of information
or commands that you type to UNIX.  The editing is very similar in style
to that of the emacs editor, and it is assumed that you have some knowledge
of emacs (in a later manual, this assumption will be removed).

When you run ILE (see below for how to do this), everything will be as if
you were NOT running ILE, with the exception that the lines that you type
may be edited by pressing certain keys.  The keys to use for editing are for
the most part the same ones used by emacs.  There are certain exceptions,
however, and you are encouraged to press ESC-? once you have run ILE in
order to get a list of what commands there are, and where on the keyboard to
find them.

There are a few problems with ILE, and you should note what they are by
looking at the PROBLEMS section later in this manual.


Running ILE
============

There are two ways to use ILE: manually and automatically:

1) Running ILE manually.
	Ile may be run manually by typing in "~dan/bin/ile" from
	c-shell, or "/home/grads/dan/bin/ile" from shell.  If you
	don't know whether you are using c-shell or shell, try the former
	first, and then if it doesn't work, try the latter.  When ILE is
	running, if you want to find out what commands you can use, type in
	ESC-?
	
	When you want to stop using ile, log out the way you normally do.
	You will be returned to the c-shell or shell from which you ran
	ILE, and may then proceed normally.

***	NOTE: Since ILE brings up a login c-shell or shell for you, you
***           should probably run ILE from your home directory.  The c-shell
***           will assume that *whatever* directory you are in at the time
***           you start ILE is your home directory.

***     ALSO NOTE: You may get a message telling you that you do not own
***           the pseudo-tty that ile is using.  Ignore it.  Someday this
***           will get fixed.

2) Running ILE automatically.
	ILE may be run automatically each time you log in if you so desire.
	What you do is type the following commands, where "login_name" 
	represents the name you type when you log in:
	If you use c-shell, type:
		chsh login_name
		cp ~dan/projects/ile/profile ~/.profile

	but if you use shell, type:
		chsh login_name /bin/csh
		cp /home/grads/dan/projects/ile/login $HOME/.login

	Having done this, the next and subsequent times you log in, ILE will
	be automatically run, and when you log out from within ILE, you will
	also be logged out of the system automatically.


PROBLEMS WITH ILE
==================

If you don't start ILE from your home directory, some programs like
gmacs can get confused between what $HOME tells it and what
/etc/passwd tells it about your home dir.  The best way to avoid
problems is to start ile from you home directory.

Tabs are not echoed properly in the input line, although they do make their
way into the input stream.

Long input lines are badly handled.  Try to keep input lines shorter than one
screen line for fully correct behaviour.  On some terminals, if you type
lines longer than one screen line, some editing commands may not be echoed
properly.  If you are in doubt as to the correctness of the input line, use
the CTRL-L command, which will clear the display and redraw the input line
correctly.

Some programs need to be connected to the real tty rather than the pseudo-tty
that ILE sets up.  While an "out" is provided for these programs (by running
them after typing ESC-r), what is really needed is a super-user program that
tweaks certain system tables.  Since this is not likely to materialize, ESC-r

will have to do for the present.

These are the programs that need to be run with ESC-R:
	mesg  (can also be run with ESC-M)
	talk  (can also be run with ESC-T)
	write (can also be run with ESC-W)
	biff

That's all folks!

	Dan Freedman
	dan@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
	(403) 220 7299 (university number)
	(403) 251-2729 (work number)
