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📘 JOE()

📋 NAME

JOE - Joe's Own Editor

🚀 Quick Reference

Use Case	Command	Description
Start editor	joe filename	Edit a file
Save and exit	^K X	Save file and exit editor
Exit without saving	^C	Abort editing (no save)
Save file	^K D	Save current file (may rename)
Search text	^K F	Find text forward/backward
Replace text	^K F r	Search and replace
Undo	^_ (Ctrl+Shift+-)	Undo last change
Redo	^^ (Ctrl+6)	Redo undone change
Help	^K H	Toggle help window
Command prompt	Esc X	Execute any JOE command by name
Shell window	^K `	Open a shell in a window
Spell check	Esc N (word) / Esc L (block/file)	Check spelling with aspell

🔢 Syntax

joe [global-options] [ [local-options] filename ]...
jstar [global-options] [ [local-options] filename ]...
jmacs [global-options] [ [local-options] filename ]...
rjoe [global-options] [ [local-options] filename ]...
jpico [global-options] [ [local-options] filename ]...

📄 Description

JOE is a powerful console screen editor. It has a "mode-less" user interface similar to many user-friendly PC editors. Users of Micro-Pro's WordStar or Borland's "Turbo" languages will feel at home. JOE is a full featured UNIX screen-editor with many features for editing programs and text.

JOE also emulates several other editors. JSTAR is a close imitation of WordStar with many "JOE" extensions. JPICO is a close imitation of the Pine mailing system's PICO editor, but with many extensions and improvements. JMACS is a GNU-EMACS imitation. RJOE is a restricted version of JOE, which allows you to edit only the files specified on the command line.

Although JOE is actually five different editors, it requires only one executable, but with five different names. The name of the editor with an "rc" appended gives the name of JOE's initialization file, which determines the personality of the editor.

JOE is free software; you can distribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License. JOE is available over the Internet from http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/joe-editor.

🔧 Usage

To start the editor, type joe followed by zero or more names of files you want to edit. Each file name may be preceded by a local option setting. Other global options, which apply to the editor as a whole, may also be placed on the command line. If you are editing a new file, you can either give the name of the new file when you invoke the editor, or in the editor when you save the new file. A modified syntax for file names is provided to allow you to edit program output, standard input/output, or sections of files or devices. See the section Filenames below for details.

Once you are in the editor, you can type in text and use special control-character sequences to perform other editing tasks. To find out what the control-character sequences are, read the rest of this man page or type ^K H for help in the editor.

The ^ means that you hold down the Control key while pressing the following key. A number of control-key sequences are duplicated on other keys: Esc works in place of ^[, Del in place of ^?, Backspace in place of ^H, Tab in place of ^I, Return or Enter in place of ^M and Linefeed in place of ^J. Some keyboards may give trouble with some control keys. ^_, ^^ and ^@ can usually be entered without pressing shift (i.e., try ^-, ^6 and ^2). Other keyboards may reassign these to other keys. ^Space can usually be used in place of ^@.

On some keyboards, holding the Alt key down while pressing another key is the same as typing Esc before typing the other key.

Once you have typed ^K H, the first help window appears at the top of the screen. You can continue to enter and edit text while the help window is on. To page through other topics, hit Esc , and Esc . (that is, Esc , and Esc .). Use ^K H to dismiss the help window.

You can customize the keyboard layout, the help screens and a number of behavior defaults by copying JOE's initialization file (usually /etc/joe/joerc) to .joerc in your home directory and then by modifying it. See the section joerc below.

To have JOE used as your default editor for e-mail and News, set the EDITOR and VISUAL environment variables in your shell initialization file (.cshrc or .profile) to refer to JOE (JOE usually resides as /usr/bin/joe).

There are a number of other obscure invocation parameters which may have to be set, particularly if your terminal screen is not updating as you think it should. See the section Environment variables below.

⚙️ Command Line Options

These options can also be specified in the joerc file. Local options can be set depending on the file-name extension. Programs (.c, .h or .p extension) usually have autoindent enabled. Wordwrap is enabled on other files, but rc files have it disabled.

An option is enabled when it's given like this: -wordwrap. An option is disabled when it's given like this: --wordwrap. Some options take arguments: -lmargin 5.

📌 Global Options

• asis — Characters with codes above 127 will be sent to the terminal as-is, instead of as inverse of the corresponding character below 128. No effect if UTF-8 encoding is used.
• assume_256color — Assume ANSI-like terminal emulator supports 256 colors even if termcap entry says it doesn't.
• assume_color — Assume ANSI-like terminal emulator supports color even if termcap entry says it doesn't.
• text_color color — Set color for text.
• status_color color — Set color for status bar.
• help_color color — Set color for help.
• menu_color color — Set color for menus.
• prompt_color color — Set color for prompts.
• msg_color color — Set color for messages.
• autoswap — Automatically swap ^K B with ^K K if necessary to mark a legal block during block copy/move commands.
• backpath path — Sets path to a directory where all backup files are to be stored. Default: store in directory containing the file.
• baud nnn — Set the baud rate for terminal screen optimization (overrides value reported by stty).
• beep — Enable beeps when edit commands return errors.
• break_links — When enabled, JOE first deletes the file before writing it to break hard-links and symbolic-links.
• break_hardlinks — When enabled, and the file is not a symbolic link, JOE first deletes the file before writing it to break hard-links.
• brpaste — Send command to terminal emulator that enables "bracketed paste mode" (only if terminal seems to have ANSI command set).
• columns nnn — Set number of columns in terminal emulator (in case termcap entry is wrong).
• csmode — Enable continued search mode: successive ^K Fs repeat the current search instead of prompting for a new one.
• dopadding — Enable JOE to send padding NULs to the terminal (for very old terminals).
• exask — When set, ^K X prompts for a new name before saving the file.
• floatmouse — When set, mouse clicks can position the cursor beyond the ends of lines.
• guess_crlf — When set, JOE tries to guess the file format MS-DOS or UNIX.
• guess_indent — When set, JOE tries to guess the indentation character and indentation step based on the contents of the file.
• guess_non_utf8 — Enable guessing of non-UTF-8 files in UTF-8 locales.
• guess_utf8 — Enable guessing of UTF-8 files in non-UTF-8 locales.
• guess_utf16 — Enable guessing of UTF-16 files. If detected, converted to UTF-8 during load, and back to UTF-16 during save.
• helpon — When set, start off with the on-line help enabled.
• help_is_utf8 — When set, the help text in the joerc file is assumed to be UTF-8.
• icase — Search is case insensitive by default when set.
• joe_state — Enable reading and writing of ~/.joe_state file.
• joexterm — Set this if xterm was configured with --paste64 option for better mouse support.
• keepup — The column number on the status line is updated constantly when this is set, otherwise it is updated only once a second.
• language language — Sets language for aspell.
• lightoff — Automatically turn off ^K B ^K K highlighting after a block operation.
• lines nnn — Set number of lines in terminal emulator (in case termcap entry is wrong).
• marking — Enable marking mode: highlights between ^K B and cursor.
• menu_above — Put menus above prompt instead of below them.
• menu_explorer — Stay in menu when a directory is selected.
• menu_jump — Jump into the file selection menu when Tab Tab is hit.
• mid — If set and cursor moves off the window, the window will be scrolled so that the cursor is in the center. Forced on slow terminals.
• left nn — Sets the number of columns the screen scrolls left when cursor moves past left edge. Negative means fraction of screen.
• right nn — Sets the number of columns the screen scrolls right when cursor moves past right edge. Negative means fraction of screen.
• mouse — Enable xterm mouse support.
• nobackups — Disable backup files.
• nocurdir — Disable current-directory prefix in prompts.
• noexmsg — Disable exiting message ("File not changed so no update needed").
• nolinefeeds — Disable sending linefeeds to preserve screen history in terminal emulator's scroll-back buffer.
• nolocks — Disable EMACS compatible file locks.
• nomodcheck — Disable periodic file modification check.
• nonotice — Prevents the copyright notice from being displayed when the editor starts.
• nosta — Eliminates the top-most status line.
• notagsmenu — Disable selection menu for tags search with multiple results.
• notite — Disable ti and te termcap sequences for saving/restoring terminal screen.
• pastehack — If keyboard input comes in as one block, assume it's a mouse paste and disable autoindent and wordwrap.
• noxon — Disable ^S and ^Q flow control, possibly allowing them to be used as editor keys.
• orphan — Orphan extra files given on the command line instead of creating windows for them.
• pg nnn — Set number of lines to keep during Page Up and Page Down (use -1 for 1/2 window size).
• regex — Use standard regular expression syntax by default.
• restore — Restore cursor positions to last positions of previously edited files.
• rtbutton — Swap left and right mouse buttons.
• search_prompting — Show previous search string in search command.
• skiptop nnn — When set to N, the first N lines of the terminal screen are not used by JOE.
• square — Enable rectangular block mode.
• transpose — Transpose rows with columns in all menus.
• title — Display context (titles) in status line.
• type — Select file type, overriding the automatically determined type.
• undo_keep nnn — Sets number of undo records to keep (0 means infinite).
• usetabs — Allow rectangular block operations to use tabs.
• wrap — Enable search to wrap to beginning of file.

📌 Local Options

• +nnn — The cursor starts on the specified line.
• autoindent — Enable auto-indent mode. When you hit Enter on an indented line, the indentation is duplicated onto the new line.
• c_comment — Enable ^G skipping of C-style comments.
• cpara characters — Sets list of characters which can indent paragraphs.
• cnotpara characters — Sets list of characters which begin lines that are definitely not part of paragraphs.
• cpp_comment — Enable ^G skipping of C++-style comments.
• crlf — JOE uses CR-LF as the end of line sequence instead of just LF.
• encoding encoding — Set file encoding (like utf-8 or 8859-1).
• flowed — Force an extra space after each line of a paragraph but the last.
• force — Append a final newline to the file if there isn't one when saved.
• french — Only one space is inserted after periods in paragraph reformats instead of two.
• hex — Enable hex-dump mode.
• highlight — Enable syntax highlighting.
• highlighter_context — Enable use of syntax file to identify comments and strings for ^G matching.
• indentc nnn — Sets the indentation character for shift left and shift right. Use 32 for Space, 9 for Tab.
• indentfirst — Smart home key jumps to indentation point first.
• istep nnn — Sets indentation step.
• linums — Enable line number display.
• lmargin — Set left margin.
• lmsg — Define left-side status bar message.
• overwrite — Enable overtype mode. Typing overwrites existing characters.
• picture — Enable "picture" mode: allows cursor to go past ends of lines.
• pound_comment — ^G ignores # comments.
• purify — Fix indentation if necessary before shifting or smart backspace.
• rdonly — Set read-only mode.
• rmargin nnn — Set right margin.
• rmsg string — Define right-side status bar message.
• semi_comment — ^G ignores ; comments.
• single_quoted — ^G ignores '...'
• smartbacks — Enable smart backspace and tab. Backspace and tab indent/unindent based on istep and indentc.
• smarthome — Home key first moves cursor to beginning of line, then if hit again, to first non-blank character.
• smsg string — Define status command format when cursor is on a character.
• spaces — Insert spaces when Tab key is hit.
• syntax syntax — Set syntax for syntax highlighting.
• tab nnn — Set tab stop width.
• text_delimiters word delimiter list — Give list of word delimiters which ^G will step through.
• vhdl_comment — ^G ignores -- comments.
• wordwrap — JOE wraps the previous word when you type past the right margin.
• zmsg string — Define status command format when cursor is at end of file.
• xmsg string — Define startup message (usually the copyright notice).
• aborthint string — Give the key sequence to show in prompts for abort (usually ^C).
• helphint string — Give the key sequence to show in prompts for help (usually ^K H).

🎨 Colors and Attributes

Combine attributes and up to one foreground color and one background color to create arguments for color options like text_color. For example: bold+bg_green+blue

• Attributes: bold, inverse, blink, dim, underline, italic
• Foreground colors: white, cyan, magenta, blue, yellow, green, red, black
• Background colors: bg_white, bg_cyan, bg_magenta, bg_blue, bg_yellow, bg_green, bg_red, bg_black

With a 16-color or 256-color terminal emulator, these brighter than normal colors become available:

• Foreground: WHITE, CYAN, MAGENTA, BLUE, YELLOW, GREEN, RED, BLACK
• Background: bg_WHITE, bg_CYAN, bg_MAGENTA, bg_BLUE, bg_YELLOW, bg_GREEN, bg_RED, bg_BLACK

With a 256-color terminal emulator, these become available:

• fg_RGB and bg_RGB, where R, G and B range from 0-5. So: fg_500 is bright red.
• fg_NN and bg_NN give shades of grey, where the intensity, NN, ranges from 0-23.

📊 Status Line Definition Strings

-lmsg defines the left-justified string and -rmsg defines the right-justified string. The first character of -rmsg is the background fill character. -smsg defines the status command (^K Space). -zmsg defines it when the cursor is at the end of the file. The last character of smsg or zmsg is the fill character.

Escape sequences:

• %t — 12 hour time
• %u — 24 hour time
• %T — O for overtype mode, I for insert mode
• %W — W if wordwrap is enabled
• %I — A if autoindent is enabled
• %X — Rectangle mode indicator
• %n — File name
• %m — '(Modified)' if file has been changed
• %* — '*' if file has been changed
• %R — Read-only indicator
• %r — Row (line) number
• %c — Column number
• %o — Byte offset into file
• %O — Byte offset into file in hex
• %a — Ascii value of character under cursor
• %A — Ascii value of character under cursor in hex
• %w — Width of character under cursor
• %p — Percent of file cursor is at
• %l — No. lines in file
• %k — Entered prefix keys
• %S — '*SHELL*' if there is a shell running in window
• %M — Macro recording message
• %y — Syntax
• %e — Encoding
• %x — Context (first non-indented line going backwards)
• %dd — day
• %dm — month
• %dY — year
• %Ename% — value of environment variable
• %Tname% — value of option (ON or OFF for Boolean options)

Formatting escape sequences: \i (inverse), \u (underline), \b (bold), \d (dim), \f (blink), \l (italic).

📝 Basic Editing

When you type characters into the editor, they are normally inserted into the file being edited (or appended to the file if the cursor is at the end of the file). To replace text, delete the old text before or after typing the replacement. The Backspace key deletes backwards. Hit Enter to insert a line-break. Use arrow keys to move around; if arrow keys don't work, use ^F (forward), ^B (backward), ^P (up), ^N (down). The Tab key inserts a tab character. If the screen gets messed up, hit ^R to refresh. Other deletion keys: ^D deletes character under cursor, ^Y deletes entire line, ^J deletes to end of line. Movement keys: ^A to beginning of line, ^E to end, ^U/^V scroll up/down half screen, ^K U/^K V to beginning/end of file. Undo with ^_ (Ctrl+Shift+-), redo with ^^ (Ctrl+6).

📍 Cursor Position History

Hit ^K - to return to the last place you made a change. Step through history with ^K - and ^K =.

💾 Save and Exit

Hit ^K X to exit the editor. You will be prompted for a file name if not already named. To exit without saving changes, hit ^C. A backup copy (with ~ appended) is saved when changes are saved.

📁 File Operations

^K D saves the current file (possibly under a different name). ^K E edits a different file. ^K R inserts a file into the current buffer.

📄 Filenames

Wherever JOE expects a file name, you may also type:

• !command — Read or write data to/from a shell command. Example: joe '!ls' to edit directory listing.
• >>filename — Append text to end of file "filename".
• filename,START,SIZE — Access a fixed section of a file or device. START and SIZE may be decimal, octal, or hexadecimal.
• - — Use standard input or output. Example: quota -v | joe | mail root.

🖥️ Using JOE in a Shell Script

If you need to pipe a file into JOE, use: echo "hi" | joe. For shell scripts with redirected stdin/stdout, use: joe filename </dev/tty >/dev/tty.

📐 Word Wrap and Formatting

If you type past the right edge in a normal file, JOE automatically wraps the last word onto the next line (word-wrap mode). Toggle with ^T W. To reformat a paragraph, hit ^K J. Set margins with ^T L and ^T R. Options: cpara (indent characters), cnotpara (non-paragraph characters), french (spaces after periods), flowed (extra space after lines), overtype (disable word wrap).

📐 Centering

Use ^K A to center a line within the margins.

🔤 Spell Checker

Hit Esc N to check spelling of word under cursor, Esc L to check highlighted block or entire file. Language can be changed with ^T V.

🔄 Overtype Mode

Toggle with ^T T. In overtype mode, typing replaces existing characters. To insert while in overtype mode, hit ^@ (inserts a space).

🔣 Control and Meta Characters

Enter control characters (0-31) by hitting ^Q followed by a character in the range @, A-Z, [, \, ], ^, _, ?. Enter meta characters (above 127) by hitting ^\ followed by the character. asis mode passes meta characters untranslated to the terminal.

🌐 Character Sets and UTF-8

JOE natively handles UTF-8 and byte-coded character sets (like ISO-8859-1). UTF-16 is supported via conversion to UTF-8 during load and back to UTF-16 during save. The terminal and file can have different encodings. Character set is determined by LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, or LANG. Use ^T E to change file coding. Hit Tab Tab for a list of available codings. Use ^K Space to see current character set. To enter a Unicode character, use ^Q x if file coding is UTF-8.

💬 Prompts

Most prompts record a history of responses. Use up/down arrow to step through. Prompts are single-line windows with no status line, so you can use editing commands. You can also switch out of prompts with ^K P and ^K N.

🔍 Completion and Selection Menus

Hit Tab in any prompt to request completion. Hit Tab twice to bring up a list of possibilities. You can jump into the menu window with ^K P and use arrow keys and Enter to make a selection. In a menu, hit the first letter of an item to jump to it. Tab completion works in search and replace prompts based on buffer contents. Hit Esc Enter in a text window to complete a word based on buffer contents.

❓ Where am I?

Hit ^K Space to report line number, column number, byte number, and ASCII code of character under cursor. You can have line/column always displayed on the status line by editing the joerc file.

❓ What if I hit ^K by accident?

Hit the space bar — it runs an innocuous command (shows line number).

⏸️ Temporarily Suspending the Editor

Hit ^K Z to suspend the editor and go back to the shell. Type fg or exit to return.

🔍 Searching for Text

Hit ^K F to search forwards or backwards. You are prompted for text and then options. Options include: b (backwards), i (case insensitive), nnn (Nth occurrence), r (replace), a (search all loaded buffers), e (search error list), x (standard regex syntax), y (JOE syntax), v (debug info). Hit ^L to repeat previous search. In replace mode, hit y (replace), n (skip), r (replace all), ^C (stop), B or Backspace (back up).

🔣 Regular Expressions

Special sequences: \* (zero or more), \+ (one or more), \? (optional), \{min,max} (specific count), \. (any character), \! (balanced C expression), \| (alternation), \( \) (grouping), ^ \$ (line begin/end), \ (word boundaries), \[...] (character class), \\ (backslash), \n (newline).

Replacement sequences: \& (matched text), \1-\9 (group match), \l/\u (next character case), \L/\U (all following case), \\ (backslash), \n (newline).

Escape sequences: \x{10ffff} (Unicode code point), \xFF (hex byte), \377 (octal byte), \p{Ll} (Unicode category/block). Also: \d (digit), \D, \w (word character), \W, \s (space), \S, \i (identifier start), \I, \c (identifier continuation), \C. Common escapes: \t (tab), \n (newline), \r (carriage return), \b (backspace), \a (alert), \f (formfeed), \e (escape), \\ (backslash).

🔍 Incremental Search

Use Esc S (forward) or Esc R (backward). As you type, cursor jumps to first match. Esc S/Esc R again to find next or switch direction. ^S, ^\, ^L work like Esc S; ^R like Esc R. Backspace undoes last action. ^Q inserts control characters. Any other key exits incremental search.

🔗 Goto Matching Delimiter

Hit ^G to jump between matching delimiters (character or word). Works for parentheses, begin/end, XML tags, #if/#else/#endif. Skips delimiters in comments/strings if configured. Options: c_comment, cpp_comment, pound_comment, semi_comment, vhdl_comment, single_quoted, double_quoted, highlighter_context, text_delimiters.

📦 Regions

To work with a block of text: move cursor to start, press ^K B; move to end, press ^K K. Then use ^K M (move), ^K C (copy), ^K Y (delete), ^K W (write to file), ^K / (filter through UNIX command, e.g., sort). To deselect, hit ^K B ^K K or ^C (JOE 4.2+). New ways: Ctrl+Right Arrow to start selecting, Ctrl+Delete to cut, Ctrl+Insert to paste. Mouse selection also works if enabled.

📐 Indenting Program Blocks

Toggle auto-indent with ^T I. Use ^K , and ^K . to shift block left/right. Options: smartbacks, smarthome, indentfirst, purify, guess_indent. ^T = quickly selects common indentation values.

📐 Rectangle Mode

Toggle with ^T X. Allows block operations on columns. Useful for moving, copying, deleting, or saving columns of text. Overtype mode (^T T) replaces existing text instead of inserting.

📐 Picture Mode

Toggle with ^T P. Helps with ASCII drawings. When cursor is past end of line, picture mode fills with spaces so characters can be inserted at cursor position.

🪟 Windows

Edit multiple files or places: ^K O splits the screen. ^K P / ^K N move to previous/next window. ^K E edits a new file in a window. ^K X or ^C closes a window. ^K I shows only the current window or all windows. ^K G / ^K T change window height. Windows are in a ring; only a section may fit on screen. orphan option controls whether extra files are loaded as orphans. bufed command shows all buffers. Esc V / Esc U cycle through buffers in a window. Windows maintain a stack of occupants for pop-up shell windows.

📝 Scratch Buffers

Scratch buffers are not saved. Examples: pop-up shell windows, startup log, compile/grep message windows. Create with scratch command. Commands: showlog (startup log), mwind (message window).

⌨️ Keyboard Macros

Record a macro: ^K [ followed by a number 0-9, then keystrokes, then ^K ]. Play with ^K followed by the number. Macros can include prompts and subroutines. Use ^K ? to suspend recording for user input. Repeat command: ^K \ followed by a number, then the command. Macros can be defined in joerc file with :def. The Esc X command prompt allows executing any macro. Commands can be combined with ! (allow failure), # (repeat individual command), ~ (suppress macro repeat), - (opposite for negative argument). Also psh/pop for saving/restoring block positions, query for dialog suspension.

🏷️ Tags Search

Use ctags to generate a tags file. JOE looks for "tags" in current directory or TAGS environment variable. Type ^K ; to search for an identifier. Tab completion works. If multiple matches, behavior depends on notagsmenu option. ^K - returns to original location. ^K O to split window first.

🧮 Calculator

Invoke with Esc M. Math functions: sin, cos, tan, exp, sqrt, cbrt, ln, log, asin, acos, atan, sinh, cosh, tanh, asinh, acosh, atanh, int, floor, ceil, abs, erf, erfc, j0, j1, y0, y1. Variables: e, pi, top, lines, line, col, byte, size, height, width, char, markv, rdonly, arg, argset, is_shell, no_windows, ans. Commands: hex, dec, ins, sum, cnt, avg, dev, eval, joe(...). Operators: !, ^, *, /, %, +, -, <, <=, >, >=, ==, !=, &&, ||, ?:, =, :.

🖥️ Shell Windows

Hit ^K ` to run a command shell in a window. Type at the end of the shell window to pass input to the shell. Output is appended. Keys passed: ^C, Backspace, Del, Return, ^D. Type exit to stop. ^C when cursor not at end kills the shell. Pop-up shell windows (F1-F4) use full terminal emulation. More keys are passed (arrow keys, Ctrl-C). Close with ^K Q or 'pop' command. Shell startup script /etc/joe/shell.sh provides aliases like clear, joe, math, cd, markb, markk, parse, parserr, release, pop.

📋 Use Cases

• Browse manual pages (F1, type "man fopen")
• Switch directories (F1, navigate with cd, then ^K E to load file)
• Use with error parser: parse grep -n FIXME *.c
• Search and replace across files using 'e' option
• Build project: parserr make

🔧 Compiler and Grep/Find Parsers

parserr parses buffer for compiler errors (format: file.name junk line-number : junk). gparse parses output of grep/find (filename, filename:line-number). Use Esc - and Esc = to visit locations. Use 'e' search option to replace across all files. release clears the list. Esc Space (jump command) parses current line and jumps.

🔍 Grep-find

Hit Esc G, enter command like grep -n fred *.c. Then use Esc Space, Esc =, Esc - to navigate.

🛠️ Compile

Hit Esc C to save all files and run compile command (e.g., "make -w"). Results are parsed. Use Esc Space, Esc =, Esc - to navigate errors.

🎨 Syntax Highlighting

Enable with ^T H. Select syntax with ^T Y (Tab Tab for completion). JOE determines syntax from file name/contents. Syntax files are in /usr/share/joe/syntax/. The syntax definition uses a deterministic state machine. Each state has a name, color, and context (comment/string). Transitions define jumps to other states based on character lists. Options: noeat, recolor, mark, markend, recolormark, buffer, save_c, save_s, strings, istrings, hold, call, return.

📄 The joerc File

Copy /etc/joe/joerc to $HOME/.joerc to customize. Includes ftyperc for file type table. Loading sequence: user's .joerc, system /etc/joe/joerc, built-in. Sections: global options, file name dependent options, ^T menu system, help screens, key bindings (main, prompt, query, querya, querysr, shell, vtshell). Key binding tables can inherit from others.

⚙️ Mode Command

Use Esc X mode to toggle options. Tab Tab for completion list.

📋 Menu Command

Use Esc X menu to bring up named menus defined in joerc. ^T is bound to menu,"root",rtn.

🖱️ Xterm Mouse Support

Enable with -mouse option. Left-click to set cursor, select text, middle-click to copy. Shift+click for normal X cut/paste. -joexterm enhances with proper X integration. Hold shift to use standard X selection. Scroll wheel scrolls cursor window. Bracketed paste mode disables autoindent/wordwrap during paste.

🎨 Color Xterm Support

Set TERM to xterm, xterm-color, xterm-16color, xterm-88color, or xterm-256color. Use -assume_256color if termcap missing. Example: joe -assume_256color -text_color bg_222.

🔢 Hex Edit Mode

Enable with -hex or via ^T menu. Buffer displayed as hex dump. Overtype mode recommended. To enter hex byte: ^Q x F 8. Use ^K C to copy block. Esc X byte to jump to byte offset. Search and replace work normally.

🌍 Environment Variables

• BAUD — Baud rate (overrides stty)
• COLUMNS — Terminal columns
• DOPADDING — Enable padding NULs
• HOME — Home directory
• HOSTNAME — Hostname for file locks
• JOETERM — Terminal type (overrides TERM)
• LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE — Locale
• LINES — Terminal lines
• NOXON — Disable ^S/^Q flow control
• SHELL — Path to shell
• SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX — Backup file suffix
• TAGS — Path to tags file
• TEMP — Swapfile directory
• TERMCAP — Termcap entry or file path
• TERMPATH — Termcap file search path
• TERM — Terminal type
• USER — Username for file locks

📋 JOE Commands Grouped by Function

These commands can be entered at the Esc X prompt.

🔄 Background Programs

• bknd — Run a shell in a window
• vtbknd — Run a shell in a terminal emulator window
• killproc — Kill program in current window
• run — Run a UNIX command in a window
• sys — Run a UNIX command and return to editor when done

📦 Blocks

• blkcpy — Copy marked block to cursor
• blkdel — Delete marked block
• blkmove — Move marked block to cursor
• blksave — Save marked block into a file
• copy — Copy block to kill-ring
• drop — Set markb; if already set, eliminate it
• dropon — Set markb; if already set, eliminate it; turn on marking mode
• toggle_marking — Toggle between clearing and setting block marks
• begin_marking — Set markb to other edge and turn on marking
• select — Set markb if not already set
• filt — Filter block or file through a UNIX command
• markb — Set beginning of block mark
• markk — Set end of block mark
• markl — Mark current line
• nmark — Eliminate markb and markk
• picokill — Delete line or block
• pop — Restore markb and markk from stack
• psh — Push markb and markk onto stack
• swap — Switch cursor with markb
• tomarkb — Move cursor to markb
• tomarkbk — Move cursor to markb or markk
• tomarkk — Move cursor to markk
• yank — Insert top of kill ring
• yankpop — Scroll through kill ring
• yapp — Append next kill to top of kill ring
• upper — Convert block to uppercase
• lower — Convert block to lowercase

📂 Buffers

• bufed — Buffer menu
• edit — Load file into window; asks to reload if buffer exists
• switch — Load file into window; always uses buffer if exists
• scratch — Push a scratch buffer into current window
• popabort — Abort and pop window from stack
• nbuf — Load next buffer into current window
• pbuf — Load previous buffer into current window
• reload — Re-read file into buffer (revert)
• reloadall — Re-read all unmodified buffers

🖱️ Cursor Motion

• bof — Beginning of file
• bol — Beginning of line (always)
• bop — Beginning of paragraph
• bos — Beginning of screen
• bkwdc — Search backwards for a character
• byte — Move cursor to specific byte offset
• col — Move cursor to specific column number
• dnarw — Move cursor down one line
• eof — End of file
• eol — End of line
• eop — End of paragraph
• fwrdc — Search forward for matching character
• gomark — Move cursor to a bookmark
• home — Move cursor to beginning of line
• line — Move cursor to specified line
• ltarw — Move cursor left
• nedge — Move cursor to next edge
• nextpos — Move cursor to next position in cursor position history
• nextword — Move cursor to end of next word
• pedge — Move cursor to previous edge
• prevpos — Move cursor to previous position in cursor position history
• prevword — Move cursor to beginning of previous word
• rtarw — Move cursor right
• setmark — Set a bookmark
• tomatch — Move cursor to matching delimiter
• tos — Move cursor to top of screen
• uparw — Move cursor up

❌ Deletion

• backs — Backspace
• backw — Backspace a word
• delbol — Delete to beginning of line
• delch — Delete character under cursor
• deleol — Delete to end of line
• dellin — Delete entire line
• delw — Delete word to right

🔧 Error Parsing

• nxterr — Goto next parsed error
• parserr — Parse errors in current file
• gparse — Parse grep list in current file
• jump — Parse current line and jump to it
• prverr — Go to previous parsed error
• showerr — Show current message
• grep — Execute grep command, parse when done
• build — Execute build command, parse when done
• release — Release error/grep records

🚪 Exit

• cancel — Like abort, but doesn't return failure
• abort — Abort current buffer/window; prompt if changed
• abortbuf — Like abort but fails if last window on modified buffer
• ask — Prompt to save current file
• exsave — Save file and exit
• lose — EMACS kill buffer (delete buffer, replace with scratch)
• querysave — Prompt to save each modified buffer
• killjoe — Exit JOE immediately without checking

📁 Files

• cd — Set directory prefix
• save — Save file
• savenow — Save immediately, unless file name is unknown
• insf — Insert a file

📐 Formatting

• center — Center line
• fmtblk — Format all paragraphs in a block
• format — Format current paragraph
• lindent — Indent to the left
• rindent — Indent to the right

❓ Help

• help — Turn help on or off
• hnext — Switch to next help screen
• hprev — Switch to previous help screen

✏️ Inserting

• ctrl — Type next key
• finish — Complete word in text window
• insc — Insert a space
• open — Insert newline
• quote — Insert a control character
• quote8 — Insert a meta character
• rtn — Return/Enter key
• type — Insert typed character
• secure_type — Insert typed character, only in prompt windows

⌨️ Macros

• macros — Insert keyboard macros into current file
• play — Execute a macro
• query — Suspend macro recording for user query
• record — Record a macro
• stop — Stop recording macro

📋 Menu

• backsmenu — Undo in file completion menu
• bofmenu — Move to beginning of menu
• bolmenu — Move to beginning of line in a menu
• dnarwmenu — Move down one line in a menu
• eolmenu — Move cursor to end of line in a menu
• eofmenu — Move cursor to end of menu
• ltarwmenu — Move cursor left in a menu
• rtarwmenu — Move cursor right in menu
• uparwmenu — Move cursor up in menu
• dnslidemenu — Scroll menu down one line
• upslidemenu — Scroll menu up one line
• pgupmenu — Scroll menu up
• pgdnmenu — Scroll menu down
• tabmenu — Tab through menu

🔧 Misc

• beep — Beep
• execmd — Execute a JOE command
• debug_joe — Insert debug information into buffer
• math — Calculator
• maths — Secure Calculator (no joe() macros)
• mode — Mode prompt
• menu — Menu prompt
• msg — Display a message
• notmod — Clear the modified flag
• retype — Refresh screen
• shell — Suspend process or execute a sub-shell
• stat — Display cursor position
• tag — Tags file search
• tagjump — Jump to next tags file search match
• timer — Execute a macro periodically
• txt — Insert text (format string if first char is `)
• name — Insert current file name
• language — Insert current language
• charset — Insert current character set
• keymap — Switch to another keymap

💬 Prompts

• complete — Complete a file-name in a prompt
• if — Only run following cmds if expr is true
• then — Same as rtn but only in prompt windows
• elsif — Try a new condition
• else — Toggle truth flag
• endif — Start running cmds again

Example if macro: if,"char==65",then,"it's an A",else,"it's not an A",endif. Variables available in math prompt: char, width, height, byte, col, line, lines, top.

🔁 Repeat

• arg — Prompt for repeat argument
• uarg — Universal argument

📜 Scrolling

• crawll — Pan screen left
• crawlr — Pan screen right
• dnslide — Scroll screen down 1 line
• pgdn — Scroll screen down
• pgup — Scroll screen up
• upslide — Scroll up one line

🔍 Search and Replace

• ffirst — Find text
• fnext — Repeat previous search
• isrch — Incremental search forward
• qrepl — Search and replace
• rfirst — Search backwards for text
• rsrch — Reverse incremental search

🪟 Windows

• explode — Display one window or all windows
• dupw — Duplicate current window
• groww — Increase size of window
• nextw — Move cursor to next window
• prevw — Go to previous window
• shrinkw — Shrink window
• splitw — Split window into two
• tw0 — Eliminate this window
• tw1 — Show only one window
• mwind — Get error messages window on screen
• showlog — Get startup log scratch buffer into window
• mfit — Fit two windows on screen

↩️ Undo

• redo — Re-execute the latest undone change
• undo — Undo last change

🖱️ Mouse

• tomouse — Move cursor to where mouse was clicked/dragged
• defmdown — Default single-click handler
• defmup — Default single-click release handler
• defmdrag — Default single-click drag handler
• defm2down — Default double-click handler
• defm2up — Default double-click release handler
• defm2drag — Default double-click drag handler
• defm3down — Default triple-click handler
• defm3up — Default triple-click release handler
• defm3drag — Default triple-click drag handler
• defmiddledown — Default middle click handler
• defmiddleup — Default middle click release handler
• xtmouse — Handle xterm mouse events
• extmouse — Handle extended xterm mouse events
• paste — Insert base64 encoded text
• brpaste — Enable bracketed paste mode
• brpaste_done — Restore modes after bracketed paste

📘 JOE() 📋 NAME 🚀 Quick Reference 🔢 Syntax 📄 Description 🔧 Usage ⚙️ Command Line Options 📝 Basic Editing 🌐 Character Sets and UTF-8 💬 Prompts ❓ Where am I? ❓ What if I hit ^K by accident? ⏸️ Temporarily Suspending the Editor 🔍 Searching for Text 📦 Regions 🪟 Windows 📝 Scratch Buffers ⌨️ Keyboard Macros 🏷️ Tags Search 🧮 Calculator 🖥️ Shell Windows 🔧 Compiler and Grep/Find Parsers 🎨 Syntax Highlighting 📄 The joerc File 🖱️ Xterm Mouse Support 🎨 Color Xterm Support 🔢 Hex Edit Mode 🌍 Environment Variables 📋 JOE Commands Grouped by Function