Provided by: the_3.3~rc1-2_amd64 bug

NAME

       the - The Hessling Editor.

SYNOPSIS

       the  [-h?nmrsbk]  [-p  profile] [-a profile_arg] [-l line_num] [-c col_num] [-w width] [-u
       display_length] [-k[fmt]] [[dir] [file [...]]]

DESCRIPTION

       THE is a text editor that uses both command line commands and key bindings to operate.  It
       is  intended  to  be  similar to the VM/CMS System Product Editor, XEDIT and to KEDIT from
       Mansfield Software.

       THE was originally written to be used by people already familiar with the  above  editors.
       For  this  reason,  the  documentation  provides  limited  information  on  using THE, and
       concentrates more on reference material, such as command syntax and configuration.

   OPTIONS
       -h, -? Print a usage message on standard error and exit successfully.

       -n     Run THE without any profile. Normally THE tries to find a profile file and  execute
              this on startup. This switch suppresses that search and execute and runs THE in its
              default mode. This switch is useful for determining if a bug  in  THE  occurs  only
              with certain user-specific customizations.

       -m     On  ports  of THE that support colour, this switch forces THE into monochrome mode.
              More a testing feature than a user feature.

       -r     This switch enables THE to be run in read-only mode. In  this  mode  commands  that
              alter the contents of a file are invalid.

       -s     On  Unix  platforms, this switch enables the writing of a core file if THE crashes.
              Normally, THE traps any internal errors and exits gracefully.   This  switch  is  a
              testing feature rather than a user feature.

       -b     When you want to use THE as a non-interactive tool for manipulating the contents of
              one or more files, this switch will  disable  any  display  of  file  contents  and
              disable keyboard interaction. Normally used in conjunction with a specific profile;
              see -p option.

       -q     Run quietly in batch mode. This will suppress the introductory informative  message
              displayed when errors are encountered running in batch.

       -k[fmt]
              Allows  'soft  label  keys'.  This  allows the display of one (or two) lines at the
              bottom of the screen with 'buttons' intended to be used to represent function keys.
              These  'soft  label keys' can be manipulated with the <SET SLK> command.  The 'fmt'
              optional extra argument is a single digit representing the format of the display of
              the 'buttons'.

               1 - displays 8 'buttons' in a 4-4 layout
               2 - displays 8 'buttons' in a 3-2-3 layout
               3 - displays 12 'buttons' in a 4-4-4 layout
               4 - displays 12 'buttons' in a 4-4-4 layout with an index line
               5 - displays 10 'buttons' in a 5-5 layout

              Not  all  platforms  support  all 5 format options.  On those ports of THE that are
              mouse-aware, the mouse can be pressed on a 'button', and the command  assigned  the
              the corresponding function key is executed.

       -l line_num
              This switch specifies the line number to make current when THE starts.

       -c column_num
              This switch specifies the column number to make current when THE starts.

       -p profile
              Specifies the THE profile to run instead of the default profile.

       -a profile_arg
              Specifies  the  arguments  that  are  passed  to  the profile specified with the -p
              switch.

       -w width
              Specifies the maximum line width for a line in the current  edit  session.  Can  be
              overridden with the <SET WIDTH> command.

       -u display_length
              THE  can  run  as  a binary editor. Specifying this switch tells THE to read in the
              file and display it in 'lines' that are  ´display_length´  long.   All  end-of-line
              characters in the file are ignored and are treated as other characters in the file.

       -X X11_switches
              With  the  X11 port of THE, standard X11 switches can be specified with this switch
              to dynamically configure the way THE displays or behaves.   You  can  also  specify
              XCurses-specific  switches  here  as  well.   For  more  information on the XCurses
              switches available, consult the PDCurses documentation.

       -1     Tells THE to run in 'Single Instance Mode'. The first time THE is run with  the  -1
              switch,  it starts as normal. Subsequent executions of THE with the -1 command-line
              switch will not start a new instance of  THE,  rather  it  will  edit  the  file(s)
              specified  on  the  command-line  in  the  currently running instance of THE.  This
              feature is currently only available with the X11 port of the using XCurses 2.5  and
              greater.   If  the first instance of THE with the -1 switch crashes for any reason,
              subsequent attempts to run THE with the -1 switch will hang.  To  fix  this  remove
              the file (really a FIFO); $HOME/.thefifo and then run THE with the -1 switch again.

       [dir [file [...]]]
              File(s) and/or directory to be edited.

FILES

       /etc/therc
              Global profile file for THE.

       $HOME/.therc
              Local profile file for THE.

       /usr/share/THE/THE_Help.txt
              THE help file name.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       THE uses the following environment variables:

       THE_HOME_DIR
              The directory in which THE looks for its help file(s) and macro(s).

       THE_HELP_FILE
              The fully qualified file name containing help information.

       THE_PROFILE_FILE
              The fully qualified file name for the local profile file.

       THE_MACRO_PATH
              A list of all directories in which THE is to look for <macro> files.

SEE ALSO

       THE Reference Manual

AUTHOR

       Mark Hessling <mark@rexx.org>.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright  1991-2010  Mark  Hessling.  All  rights reserved.  THE is distributed under the
       terms of the GNU General Public License and comes with NO WARRANTY. See the  file  COPYING
       for details.

       On  Debian  systems,  the complete text of the GNU General Public License version 2 can be
       found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.

WWW

       http://hessling-editor.sourceforge.net

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs to <thelist@uiuc.edu>.

MANUAL AUTHORS

       Mark Hessling <mark@rexx.org>.
       Alen Zekulic <alen@nms.hr>.