7.1. History Function 

The input function in status line 2 knows some different types of input strings
(see chapter "History File"), each of them possessing an own history buffer.
This buffer will be activated (during a string input in status line 2)
with Cursor Up / Down.

In the center of the screen, a window with the last 16 entries for this string
type occurs. The entries are sorted in the sequence of their usage - the last
one on the bottom line. This line is selected at the beginning (marked with
invers display).

Usage as follows:

   - Cursor Up / Down
      The selected line is moved up / down.

   - <esc> / ^C
      Aborts the history function, the old status line 2 is preserved.

   - <cr>
      The selected history line is copied to the status line 2, where it
      may be altered afterwards.

   - <Del> / <Entf>
      The selected line is removed from the history buffer.

   - <Ins> / <Einfg>
      The selected line will be delete protected / enabled
      (shown with a mark at the start of the line).


 
 7.2. History File 

After starting mbedit, the history buffer will be read from the file 
MBEDIT.HST. Before leaving the editor, it is written back. Thus, the history
entries are stored between single edit sessions.

The file is located on the user home directory, which is determined by the
environment variable ":HOME:" or "HOME" respectively (see also chapter
"Environment Variables").

MBEDIT.HST is an ASCII file, which can be edited itself. Please note the
end-of-string-character '\0' at the end of each line.

   - Format of entries in the history file :
   
      3 1:the quick brown fox ...'\0'<cr><lf>
      | |||                      |   |
      | |||                      |   +-- for easier handling
      | |||                      |       with a text editor
      | |||                      |
      | |||                      +-- end of string
      | |||
      | ||+-- text with all ASCII characters except '\0'
      | ||
      | |+-- flag for start of text string
      | |
      | +-- 1 = delete protected, 0 = delete enabled
      |
      +-- history identifier  (e.g.: 3 = "Find" history)


   - List of history identifiers

      Id  |  type of input string
     -----+-----------------------
       0  |   Filename (Quit Init / Write, Get / Put File, Get Macro-File)
       1  |   Set Margin
       2  |   Numerical Inputs (Hex Input, File Number, Left Column, Tabs,
          |                     View Row, Jump Line, Jump Position)
       3  |   Find
       4  |   Replace
       5  |   System ("!")
       6  |   Calc
       7  |   Macro (Create / Delete / Save / Execute)


 
 7.3. Status File 

With the quit of mbedit, the actual file constellation will be stored on
a special file "MBEDIT.STA" on the current directory. When mbedit is invoked
with the command "mbedit -" or "mbedit last_again", this file is used to 
restore the same file constellation, including view_only attribute and
last cursor position.

   - Format of entries (max. 10) in the status file :
   
      0 MBEDIT.C         5078
      0 SWITCHES.C      75622
      1 HISTORY.H        1260
      0 ..\INCL\DATA.H    335
      | |                 |
      | |                 +-- cursor position in file
      | +-- pathname / filename
      +-- 1 = view only


Until Version 7.05 the status file "mbedit.sta" was created in every current
directory. Thus, we got a real inflation of those files. Many users complained
about that fact, so i decided to modify the behaviour of the status file:

Since Version 7.06, there exists only one status file "mbedit.sta" on the user
home directory. The disadvantage of this fact is, that now you can make use
of the option "mbedit - " or "mbedit last_again", only if you work on the same
directory. I think, we can live with that restriction.

The old or new behavior can be selected with the #define constant 
"WITH_LAST_AGAIN" in the header file "config.h" (see there !).