Joe's Own Editor
Encyclopedia
JOE or Joe's Own Editor is a terminal-based text editor
for Unix
systems, available under the GPL
. It is designed to be easy to use.
JOE is distributed in most major Linux distributions and open-source BSD systems.
in JOE are similar to those of WordStar
and Turbo C
: many are combinations of the Control key
and another key, or combinations of Ctrl+K and another key, or combinations of the Escape key and another key. Numerous settings are also available through Ctrl+T. The program is generally customizable through an extensive configuration file
, and it supports color syntax highlighting
for numerous popular file format
s, a feature that is also configurable.
JOE comes with macro files that emulate Emacs
keybindings (when invoked as jmacs), Pico
(when invoked as jpico), or WordStar (when invoked as jstar). There is also a variant called "rjoe", which is restricted in that it allows one to edit only the files specified on the command line (which can be useful to enforce the principle of least privilege
).
While the user interface
of the editor is reminiscent of DOS
editors, it also includes the typical Unix
editor features such as internal command history
, tab completion in file selection menus, regular expression
search system and the ability to filter (pipe
) arbitrary blocks of text through any external command.
distributions, which gave it some prominence and helped build a user base, so it continues to be included as an option in Linux and BSD distributions, sometimes in the critical role as a "rescue mode" editor.
After version 2.8 was released by Joseph Allen in 1995, the development cycle had halted for several years. The development was taken over by a new group of enthusiasts in 2001, led by Marek Grac, who released 2.9 and several later versions, introducing a standardized build system and fixing many bugs. Allen returned to the project in 2004 and released version 3.0, which introduced syntax highlighting and support for UTF-8
.
| last = Schroder
| first = Carla
| title = Linux Cookbook
| chapter = Editing Text Files with JOE and Vim
| date = 2004-12-01
| edition = 1st
| url = http://books.google.com/books?id=Jme23KdbJL4C&pg=PA68
| accessdate = 2009-09-26
}}
Text editor
A text editor is a type of program used for editing plain text files.Text editors are often provided with operating systems or software development packages, and can be used to change configuration files and programming language source code....
for Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
systems, available under the GPL
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
. It is designed to be easy to use.
JOE is distributed in most major Linux distributions and open-source BSD systems.
Description of features
JOE includes an integrated help system and a reminder of how to get help is always on the screen. The key sequencesKeyboard shortcut
In computing, a keyboard shortcut is a finite set of one or more keys that invoke a software or operating system operation when triggered by the user. A meaning of term "keyboard shortcut" can vary depending on software manufacturer...
in JOE are similar to those of WordStar
WordStar
WordStar is a word processor application, published by MicroPro International, originally written for the CP/M operating system but later ported to DOS, that enjoyed a dominant market share during the early to mid-1980s. Although Seymour I...
and Turbo C
Turbo C
Turbo C is an Integrated Development Environment and compiler for the C programming language from Borland. First introduced in 1987, it was noted for its integrated development environment, small size, extremely fast compile speed, comprehensive manuals and low price.In May 1990, Borland replaced...
: many are combinations of the Control key
Control key
In computing, a Control key is a modifier key which, when pressed in conjunction with another key, will perform a special operation ; similar to the Shift key, the Control key rarely performs any function when pressed by itself...
and another key, or combinations of Ctrl+K and another key, or combinations of the Escape key and another key. Numerous settings are also available through Ctrl+T. The program is generally customizable through an extensive configuration file
Configuration file
In computing, configuration files, or config files configure the initial settings for some computer programs. They are used for user applications, server processes and operating system settings. The files are often written in ASCII and line-oriented, with lines terminated by a newline or carriage...
, and it supports color syntax highlighting
Syntax highlighting
Syntax highlighting is a feature of some text editors that display text—especially source code—in different colors and fonts according to the category of terms. This feature eases writing in a structured language such as a programming language or a markup language as both structures and...
for numerous popular file format
File format
A file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...
s, a feature that is also configurable.
JOE comes with macro files that emulate Emacs
Emacs
Emacs is a class of text editors, usually characterized by their extensibility. GNU Emacs has over 1,000 commands. It also allows the user to combine these commands into macros to automate work.Development began in the mid-1970s and continues actively...
keybindings (when invoked as jmacs), Pico
Pico (text editor)
Pico is a text editor for Unix and Unix-based computer systems. It is integrated with the Pine e-mail client, which was designed by the Office of Computing and Communications at the University of Washington....
(when invoked as jpico), or WordStar (when invoked as jstar). There is also a variant called "rjoe", which is restricted in that it allows one to edit only the files specified on the command line (which can be useful to enforce the principle of least privilege
Principle of least privilege
In information security, computer science, and other fields, the principle of least privilege, also known as the principle of minimal privilege or just least privilege, requires that in a particular abstraction layer of a computing environment, every module must be able to access only the...
).
While the user interface
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
of the editor is reminiscent of DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
editors, it also includes the typical Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
editor features such as internal command history
Command History
Command history is a feature in many operating system shells, computer algebra programs, and other software that allows the user to recall, edit and rerun previous commands....
, tab completion in file selection menus, regular expression
Regular expression
In computing, a regular expression provides a concise and flexible means for "matching" strings of text, such as particular characters, words, or patterns of characters. Abbreviations for "regular expression" include "regex" and "regexp"...
search system and the ability to filter (pipe
Pipeline (Unix)
In Unix-like computer operating systems , a pipeline is the original software pipeline: a set of processes chained by their standard streams, so that the output of each process feeds directly as input to the next one. Each connection is implemented by an anonymous pipe...
) arbitrary blocks of text through any external command.
History
JOE was among the default editors in the early popular LinuxLinux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
distributions, which gave it some prominence and helped build a user base, so it continues to be included as an option in Linux and BSD distributions, sometimes in the critical role as a "rescue mode" editor.
After version 2.8 was released by Joseph Allen in 1995, the development cycle had halted for several years. The development was taken over by a new group of enthusiasts in 2001, led by Marek Grac, who released 2.9 and several later versions, introducing a standardized build system and fixing many bugs. Allen returned to the project in 2004 and released version 3.0, which introduced syntax highlighting and support for UTF-8
UTF-8
UTF-8 is a multibyte character encoding for Unicode. Like UTF-16 and UTF-32, UTF-8 can represent every character in the Unicode character set. Unlike them, it is backward-compatible with ASCII and avoids the complications of endianness and byte order marks...
.
See also
- Comparison of text editorsComparison of text editorsThis article provides basic comparisons for common text editors. More feature details for text editors are available from the Category of text editor features and from the individual products' articles...
- List of text editors
- jupp
- neNe (text editor)ne is a console text editor for POSIX computer operating systems such as Linux or Mac OS X. It uses the terminfo library, but it can also be compiled using a bundled copy of the GNU termcap implementation. There is also a Cygwin version...
- WordStar diamond
Further reading
77| last = Schroder
| first = Carla
| title = Linux Cookbook
| chapter = Editing Text Files with JOE and Vim
| date = 2004-12-01
| edition = 1st
| url = http://books.google.com/books?id=Jme23KdbJL4C&pg=PA68
| accessdate = 2009-09-26
}}