The normal menu bar that is provided by many systems has been replaced by a command line which appears at the bottom of the screen and which serves both as a source of information about the current status of the editor settings as well as a means for entering commands with key strokes. Whenever the <escape> key is pressed, the cursor moves to the command line where the commands are then entered. For example, this is the method for searching and replacing text strings. The command line also serves as the medium of communication from the editor to the user - all warnings, error messages and other helpful messages indicating what the editor is doing at any given time are printed there. Another function of the command line is to serve as a status line to remind the user of the status of the various settings of the option flags.