Stedi is a powerful folding editor. The folds have a native implementation. It is also a complete editor in the sense that it has a macro language, regular expressions and much more. Additionally it is rather compact and extremely fast. And there is a 198 page manual.

There is an execuatble for LINUX, and the sources are provided for extra ports. The author does not have much time for extra ports, being involved in the further development of FORM and complicated physics calculations.

The best way to use the editor is to put the files st, stedi and stedi.xdf in the ~/bin directory. If one puts the stedi file somewhere else, the file st should be adapted accordingly. The command `st' will then start the new window with the editor and the proper key redefinitions. To have this facility also when stedi is to be used on a remote computer, execute first the command `xhost +' on the front end computer. This disables access control. On the remote computer one should have the line

setenv DISPLAY ${REMOTEHOST}:0

in the .login file. Due to a suspected bug in the LINUX kernel there are some problems running stedi directly. The first time stedi is invoked, everything works well (with a somewhat different keymap than in the X window) but the second time it is invoked inside the same terminal window, it does not get its input keys any longer (other types of messages are still passed properly). Hence it is best to use the `st' script.

To improve functionality it is a good idea to make a separate directory for files related to stedi, like macros, the defaults files and the help file. If this directory is called ~/stedidir one should add the following lines to the .login file

setenv STEDIDFT ~/stedidir

setenv STEDIHLP ~/stedidir

setenv STEDIMAC ~/stedidir

and put the stedi.hlp file in this directory. The various files are:

stedi : (133 Kb) The LINUX executable

stedi.gz : (71 Kb) the gzipped version of stedi.

st : (72 bytes) The script to call stedi.

stedi.xdf : (4 Kb) X windows key redefinitions and setup parameters.

stedi.hlp : (20 Kb) the file with the on-line help.

keycomp : (21 Kb) The LINUX executable key compiler for user defined composite commands.

nstand.k : (4 Kb) An example of a key redefinition file.

nstand.key : (1 Kb) The result when nstand.k is taken through the keyredefinition file.

stedi.ps : (861 Kb) The postscript version of the 198 page manual.

stedi.ps.gz : (247 Kb) The gzipped version of stedi.ps.

stedi.pdf : (547 Kb) The pdf version of the manual.

stedi.pdf.gz : (443 Kb) The gzipped version of stedi.pdf.

stedi.tar.gz : (179 Kb) The C sources of the editor. Some old mouse files are still missing. They will be added in the future.

stediman.tar.gz : (146 Kb) The LaTeX sources of the manual, with the style files.

The stedi editor was originally made for the Atari ST. It was part of the CRAFT package, together with the GP-shell. Then it was ported to MS-DOS, keeping its full functionality. Next it was ported to BSD UNIX, but there it suffered somewhat in its functionality, because under UNIX one has only terminal windows. Terminal windows do not recognize the Alternate key, and have problem with function keys, the control key and the special keys. With LINUX its has recovered its original functionality, provided one uses the `st' script to have the editor run in a separate X window.

The manual misses its tutorial part. There is still a good tutorial for an older version on the Atari ST. If there is a demand for it I will try to recover it from the (very old) backups (if at all possible, because my atari died a long time ago).

If ever FORM will be made interactive, the front end will be this editor. I think that great things can be done by combining a powerful editor with a symbolic manipulation program. The editor manipulates the representation and the symbolic program manipulates the meaning.