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Q71415: Effect of the rmargin Switch in the PWB 1.0/1.1 Editor

Article: Q71415
Product(s): Microsoft Programming Utilities
Version(s): MS-DOS:1.0,1.1; OS/2:1.0,1.1
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kb16bitonly
Last Modified: 30-OCT-1999

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Programmer's Workbench for MS-DOS, versions 1.0, 1.1 
- Microsoft Programmer's Workbench for OS/2, versions 1.0, 1.1 
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SUMMARY
=======

The Programmer's WorkBench (PWB) has two switches called rmargin and wordwrap
that affect behavior within the editor when typing towards the end of a line.
These two switches can be used together to force line breaks as you type past a
specified margin. However, the PWB documentation for versions 1.0 and 1.1 is
somewhat incomplete in describing exactly how rmargin works.

The rmargin switch changed in PWB 2.0 to indicate the right margin, rather than
the beginning of the word wrapping zone.

MORE INFORMATION
================

To use rmargin, the wordwrap switch must be set to "yes" to enable word wrapping
at the right margin. With wordwrap turned on, the number specified by the
rmargin switch controls the right column margin. The C version 6.0 and 6.0a
"Microsoft C Reference" manual (page 83) describes the rmargin switch as
follows:

  Controls the right column margin used for wordwrap mode. Any character typed
  to the right of this margin causes a line break.

The C 6.0 and 6.0a online help for rmargin changes the wording of the second
sentence above to the following:

  A space typed to the right of this margin causes subsequent characters to be
  placed on the following line.

In reality, neither of these descriptions is entirely true. There are two ways
that an automatic line break will occur:

1. If any space is typed after the column specified by rmargin, a forced line
  break will occur at that point.

2. If any word extends six characters past the rmargin column, a forced line
  break will be inserted before the word, causing the word to be moved to the
  next line. The documentation neglects any mention of this behavior.

These are the only two cases where PWB will force a line break. PWB does not
immediately wordwrap when a character is typed past the right margin as one
might expect.

In some cases, you may want to ensure that you do not have any text after a
specified column. This can be done by setting rmargin to six less then the last
column in which you want text to appear. A simple formula for this is:

     rmargin = last_column_to_allow_text - 6

By setting rmargin to a value as indicated by this formula, a line break will
occur if a space is inserted into any of the last six columns before the column
specified by last_column_to_allow_text, or a word will be moved down to the next
line if it extends past last_column_to_allow_text. Thus, no characters will ever
be allowed to the right of last_column_to_allow_text.

Additional query words: kbinf 1.00 1.10 PWBIss

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Keywords          : kb16bitonly 
Technology        : kbAudDeveloper kbPWBSearch kbZNotKeyword3 kbPWB100DOS kbPWB110DOS kbPWB100OS2 kbPWB110OS2
Version           : MS-DOS:1.0,1.1; OS/2:1.0,1.1

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