Q35028: Passing Textargs to M with the /E Switch

Article: Q35028
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 1.00   | 1.00
Operating System(s): MS-DOS | OS/2
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | | mspl13_basic
Last Modified: 1-SEP-1988

Question:

How can I pass textargs to the editor using the /e command-line
switch?

Response:

Type in the name of the function you want the editor to execute. If
you want to use more than one function, enclose the functions in
double-quotation marks. If your functions require arguments, use the C
syntax for specifying quotation marks within strings, i.e., the
backslash escape character (\). Thus, a double-quotation mark within
a string is specified with \".

The following examples demonstrate various methods of passing
command-line arguments to M:

m /e psearch myfile

This example invokes the Microsoft Editor on the file "myfile",
passing it the command "psearch" to be executed immediately. The
psearch will search for whatever string was last specified (in the
search buffer).

m /e "mark psearch" myfile

This example again edits "myfile", but this time it passes two
commands to M: "mark" and "psearch". The Mark command goes to the
beginning of the file, and psearch searches forward for an occurrence
of the search-string (which must have been specified in a previous
search).

m /e "arg \"search string\" psearch" myfile

This example passes the editor the following string:

"arg "search string" psearch"

The \" characters are a C escape sequence that evaluates to a
double-quotation mark ("); as a result, the entire string has a string
embedded in it. The effect of this command is to tell the editor to
search for the literal text "search string".

m /e "arg \"\\\"a quoted search string\\\"\" psearch" myfile

This is the most complicated case of argument passing. It
passes the following string to the editor:

"arg "\"a quoted search string\"" psearch"

This command searches for the QUOTED literal text ""a quoted search
string"".  The "\" and \"" are necessary to cause M itself to postpone
evaluation of the double-quotation marks until actual search time.

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