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)