NAME

       leaf - Lightweight Editor of Ascii(and more) Files

SYNOPSIS

       leaf [-f] [-d dictionary] [+n] [filename]

USAGE

       leaf is a simple console text file editor, with paragraph word-wrapping
       and spell checking.  leaf is based on the text editor in the Cone mail
       reader and composer.  leaf opens filename, positioning the cursor on
       the first line, or line #n, if specified.

       This is not really the best editor for program sources.  leaf is meant
       to be used as a quick editor for writing short notes and memos. As text
       is typed, words will automatically flow to wrap within a typical
       80-character terminal display, even on larger display (due to leaf´s
       heritage as an editor for E-mail messages, which are traditionally
       formatted to fit an 80-character display). Word wrapping is "lazy":
       only long text lines are wrapped. Short text lines are not folded
       together. Individual paragraphs are separated by blank lines of text.
       Press CTRL-J to optimally rejustify the paragraph under the cursor. The
       bottom two lines on the screen list which keys to press for other
       functions.

   Flowed text
       The -f option enables “flowed text” formatting convention. Plain text
       files have no explicit means for joining multiple lines into logical
       paragraph. Each line of text is an individual line, and a blank line
       marks the end of a paragraph.

       In a “flowed text” formatted file, each line in a paragraph except the
       last one ends with a space character. This makes no visual difference,
       it´s just a marker that this line should be merged with the next line.
       The last line in the paragraph does not end in a space character.

       The trailing space character is logically removed from each flowed
       line, and all flowed lines are merged into a logical paragraph that can
       be adjusted to any display width. It´s important to note that text
       written in non-ideographic languages, where individual words are
       separated by spaces, will have two space characters at the end of every
       line: the space character that separates the last word on the line from
       the first word on the next line, and the a second space character that
       marks the line as a flowed line.

       Because the trailing space marking a flowed line is logically removed,
       without the second space character there will not be a logical space
       between the two words, and if the paragraph´s width is adjusted for
       display the two words may get combined together.

       The -f option puts leaf into flowed text mode, removing spaces from
       each flowed line of text in an opened file. A flowed line is marked on
       the screen with a "<" character in the right margin (or a small "next
       line" character on a UTF-8 display). When saving a file leaf
       automatically adds a trailing space to each line that´s marked as
       flowed.

       The flowed text mode stays in effect for each file opened in leaf. When
       opening another file, press CTRL-F to turn flowed mode on or off for
       the next file. This change stays in effect until it gets toggled again.

       Pressing CTRL-J optimally rejustifies the text in flowed text mode.
       leaf heuristically determines the start and the end of the paragraph,
       readjusts the width of the paragraph, and marks each line as flowed,
       except the last paragraph line.  leaf uses a unicode-based algorithm
       for determining whether the last character line needs a space
       character, in addition to the flowed space marker.

           Note
           leaf is frequently used to edit plain text email message content.
           Because email messages assign some semantical meaning to lines of
           text that start with spaces or ">" characters, CTRL-J will not
           rejustify lines of text that begin with a ">" or a space. These
           lines will be considered paragraph boundaries, in addition to blank
           lines.

   Spell checking
       The -d option sets the name of the dictionary used for spell checking
       (overriding the default spell checking dictionary set by the DICTIONARY
       environment variable).  +n sets the initial cursor position to line #n.

SEE ALSO

       emacs(1), vi(1)

AUTHOR

       Sam Varshavchik

Cone©                             04/04/2011                           LEAF(1)