97 lines
3.3 KiB
Text
97 lines
3.3 KiB
Text
<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
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type="topic"
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id="gedit-general-intro">
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<info>
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<link type="guide" xref="index" group="intro-second" />
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</info>
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<title>Introduction to text editors in general</title>
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<section id="not-a-word-processor">
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<title>Not a word processor</title>
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<p>
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A <em>text editor</em> must be differentiated from
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<em>word processors</em>.
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</p>
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<p>
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An example of a word processor is
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<link href="https://www.libreoffice.org/">LibreOffice Writer</link>, which
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is released as Free and open-source software.
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</p>
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<p>
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A word processor permits to create different kinds of documents (reports,
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letters, books, etc), with the ability to insert images, tables and other
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elements.
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</p>
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<p>
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A text editor like <app>gedit</app> is used for creating and editing
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<em>text files</em>. The files that are saved by <app>gedit</app> and
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stored on disk contain only text.
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</p>
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</section>
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<section id="text-file-formats">
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<title>Text file formats</title>
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<p>
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With a text editor, you can write simple notes as free-form text. But the
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text can also follow a certain <em>format</em>.
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</p>
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<p>
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Other programs take text files as input, read the text in it, and produce
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a result. For example, web browsers can read text files that follow the
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HTML format and renders them as pages.
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</p>
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<p>
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A text file format specifies how the content needs to be structured in
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order to be understood by the other programs.
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</p>
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</section>
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<section id="examples">
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<title>Examples</title>
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<section id="example-documents">
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<title>Writing documents</title>
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<p>
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It is interesting to note that, with a simple text editor and text
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files, it is possible to write documents such as produced by a word
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processor.
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</p>
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<p>
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To take our earlier example with HTML, to insert an image, it is done by
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referring to an external image file (for example stored on disk in the
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same directory). Although the image file is not part of the HTML file, a
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web browser knows that it needs to embed it in the page.
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</p>
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</section>
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<section id="example-source-code">
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<title>Source code</title>
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<p>
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Text files are not restricted to write notes or documents, another area
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is writing <em>source code</em>, to develop a piece of software with a
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programming or scripting language.
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</p>
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</section>
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</section>
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<section id="syntax-highlighting">
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<title>Syntax highlighting</title>
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<p>
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When writing text in a certain format (or “language”), it is very useful
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to visually distinguish the different kinds of elements, when a portion of
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text has a special meaning. The special meanings depend on the
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<em>syntax</em> of the language, i.e., how things should be structured.
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</p>
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<p>
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This is done by adding colors to the text (or other highlighting means:
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bold, italic, underline, etc).
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</p>
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<p>
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It is important to note that these colors are <em>not</em> saved into the
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file; instead, it is the text editor application that presents the text to
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the user that way.
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</p>
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</section>
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</page>
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