1. Introduction The intention of the present group of programmes is to put at the disposal of the interested linguist the tools he or she would require in order to process lexical data with a high degree of automation on a personal computer. The pack- age is divided into several groups which perform typical functions. Of these the first, lexical analysis, will be of immediate concern. The main programme, Lexa, allows one to tag and lemmatise any text or series of texts with a minimum of effort. All that is required is that the user specify what (possible) words are to be assigned to what lemmas. The rest is taken care of by the programme. Manual tagging and editing of a text is equally possible with Lexa as are a whole range of additional processing op- tions which are desirable during lexical analysis. In the design of the current set flexibility has been given highest priority. This is to be seen in the number of items, in nearly all programmes, which are user-determinable. Furthermore, techniques have been employed which render the structure of each programme as user-friendly as possible, permitting the linguist to concentrate on essentially lin- guistic matters. To the user who has little or no previous experience of computing a word of warning is called for: all technical ex- planations given within programmes and in the manuals assume that one is acquainted with the basics of computer hardware and software and that one has at least some experience with word processing if not with database management. Those users for whom this is not the case are strongly advised to ac- quire the necessary background knowledge in these relevant areas before embarking on lexical data processing. ============================================================= 2. Mouse support A Microsoft mouse (or compatible one) can be used with the main programme of the Lexa package and most of the minor ones as well. The principle behind mouse support is very simple. A cursor appears in the centre of the screen when the programme is loaded. Moving the mouse causes this block cursor to move around the screen. To activate a com- mand with the mouse, move the block cursor to the text of a command (e.g. to a line of a window menu) and press the left button. In a menu of options or in a directory listing you can move the highlight bar to a particular item by moving the cursor and clicking a button. Note in this connection that a mouse click moves the highlight bar and also carries out the option concerned. What this in practice means is that the use of the mouse has the effect of both moving the bar with an arrow key and then pressing . In many situations the mouse buttons are differentiated. If this is the case then the following settings hold: Left Button = Right Button = When a window with options is opened and you click a button when the mouse cursor is located outside of this win- dow then the latter disappears (this is functionally equiv- alent to pressing the key. 3. On slide bars In any window listing, be it online help, a directory list or a disk tree structure, a slide bar can be recog- nized on one edge of the window. At the top of the bar is an arrow pointing upwards and on the bottom another arrow pointing downwards. If you move the mouse cursor to one of these arrows and click a button the highlight bar moves in the expected direction. Furthermore holding a mouse button depressed causes the action to repeat (until you release the button again). When a list scrolls in the window the dark block in the slide bar moves either upwards or downwards. The block gives a visually effective indication of where the currently high- lighted item is in the list (towards the beginning or end). 4. Answering to prompts with a mouse Users should furthermore note how to respond with the mouse when requested to press a key: at any time when you are offered a choice which is to be decided upon by pressing a key you may use the mouse to achieve this. In each case a prompt line appears and after or below it the following text: [ y | n | Esc ]. Here you can move the mouse block to within the delimiters of the option you want and click the left button. Say you wish to accept an option then you do not ne- cessarily have to position the mouse block on the letter y. It suffices to locate it between the square bracket and the broken vertical bar in which the 'y' is enclosed. The same applies to the 'n' and 'Esc' responses to the prompt. ============================================================= 5. Command typology In order to reduce the effort required to acquaint one- self with the Lexa set, certain keystrokes are dedicated to certain types of command. This applies to those programmes which do not start and end automatically but enter a level from where the user can carry out data processing of one kind or other via internal programme commands. Here is a brief summary of these. F1 Help Shift-F1 DOS Command Ctrl-F1 DOS Call F2 View File Shift-F2 Edit File Ctrl-F2 Hexedit File F3 Mark Files Shift-F3 Unmark all Files F4 New Drive Shift-F4 File Template F5 Load File Shift-F5 Re-read Dir. F6 Erase File Shift-F6 Confirm Ctrl-F6 Rename File F7 Exit Progr. Shift-F7 And Change Dir. F8 Make Dir. Shift-F8 Delete Dir. Ctrl-F8 Rename Dir. F9 Environment Shift-F9 File Type Ctrl-F9 Run Pro.+File F10 Save File, Start Operation If a programme has integrated file management (e.g. Lexa File) then most of these settings hold. The setting of for file loading and of for file saving applies to those programmes which process as opposed to manage data (e.g. Lexa Text as opposed to Lexa View). The combination of and a (function) key is used only occasionally as the 30 possibilities of plain function key, and is normally enough. The key is used to accept a window option, an input prompt, or mark a file (in a listing). Pressing aborts an operation you have commenced and retreats back one step in the programme. The navigation keys have the following settings: UpArrow, DownArrow Move vertically in window display PageUp, PageDown Move up or down a window at a time Ctrl-PgUp, Ctrl-PgDn Beginning or end of relevant list These settings above apply to text display, directory listings and tree structures. Furthermore pressing in a directory listing leads to the programme the highlight bar is resting on being executed, assuming that it is a startup file (with the ex- tension .com, .exe or .bat). In any listing, directory or tree structure, typing normal alphabet letters leads to the highlighting jumping to the next alphabetical find on a letter by letter basis (so-called letter search). Remember: In those programmes which have a large set of commands you can activate either a picklist or a system of menus or both by pressing . This is indicated in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. By moving a scoll bar and pressing you can execute the highlighted command. ============================================================= 6. User Input Editor At various points in Lexa and in the additional utilities like Lexa Sweep or Lexa Pat, the user is prompted to enter text which is to serve as input for some command or other. In such cases an internal input editor is activated which has a small set of commands at its disposal. You can simplify the task of providing programmes with input by mastering the use of this mini-editor. Here is a description of its command set. Pressing this key when within the User Input Editor causes the entry to be terminated and the current command to continue to the next step (which may be its ex- ecution). Used to abort the current command. Even if there are several prompts involving the User Input Editor pressing the key at any point leads to the entire command being cancelled and the controlling programme returning to the point immediately before the initiation of the cancelled command. Any command involving the User Input Editor can be executed several times. To obviate the necessity of having to repeat an entry which was already made for a former run of the command the arrow keys have been pro- grammed so that they scroll backwards in the list of pre- viously entered commands. If you scroll in the list and arrive at an entry which you wish to adopt for the present run of the command, you can simply press or edit this entry just like a fresh one. Note that there is a fixed length for every input line which in all programmes is determined by the horizontal size of the input window/line. No characters beyond this will be accepted from the keyboard. You may of course delete characters and re-enter some if you wish. The number of commands which can be stored in the command list varies from programme to programme. The minimum is 8 and the maximum 32. When the list is full any further command replaces the first command of the list in a circular fashion. Used to scroll forwards in a command list. If you are at the front end of the list anyway, no action is taken. Should the list be full, pressing the dis- plays the first command after the last command in the list. Moves the cursor to the left within the input window/line. You cannot move off the left edge of the window. Moves the cursor to the right within the input window/line. You cannot move off the right edge of the window or beyond the last letter of the present input line. Jumps to the beginning of the input line. Jumps to the end of the input line. Deletes the section of the input line from the present cursor position to the end of the line including the character under which the cursor is presently resting. Deletes the character under which the cursor is presently resting. Deletes the character immediately to the left of the cursor. This keystroke has no effect at the beginning of a line. This is a toggle which switches back and forth between the insert and the typeover keyboard input modes. The key used to terminate an entry (either the or key) is not considered part of the entry. In some cases a programme fills the input line in advance with a default value which is that the user is assumed to want most frequently (e.g. "A:\" as target of a copying operation). This value can of course be edited. Uppercase letters may appear when one is retrieving a pre- vious command from the command list. You may mix lowercase letters with these (if you are editing part of a previous command (e.g. as in "C:\LEXA" -> "C\LEXA\my_data") as the input line editor is (nearly) always insensitive to case. Presents a screen with the characters of the ASCII set from which you can choose a character to enter into the input line you are presently editing. ============================================================= 7. Directory Listers commands In the programmes of the Lexa package an internal direc- tory lister is available. This serves the purpose of allowing users to choose files in a comfortable and flexible manner. To this end a number of commands have been included which apply to all instances of the directory lister. First of all you notice that the screen is cleared and two windows are to be seen: a window with a listing on the right of the screen and a long horizontal window in the centre. The latter always displays the name of the directory from which the listing was derived. When first called, the direc- tory displayed here is that for the current drive. ΝΝΝΝΝ[ 1]ΝΝΝΝΈ ² MY_FILE .DOC ³ ² TEST1 .LST ³ ² TEST2 .LST ³ ²® Parent Dir ―³ ²― A: ®³ ²― B: ®³ ²― C: ®³ ²― D: ®³ ΥΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΈ ²― E: ®³ ³ D:\SRC\TC\LEXA ³ ² ³ ΤΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΎ ΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔ³ ³ Sh-F9 Escape ³ ΤΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΎ A highlight bar rests on the first item in the listing and can be moved downwards. In all, you have the following navigation keys at your disposal: Up/down an item in listing Up/down a windowful of files Beginning or end of listing Type the first few letters of the file you want and the bar jumps to next match Alternatively you can use the mouse by placing the mouse cursor on either  or  to move up or down in the listing respectively. 8. Changing directory or drive To change directory press the key when the high- light bar is located on a directory entry, either a name, e.g. [MY_DATA] for a subdirectory, or the word ® Parent Dir ― for the directory immediately above the current one. To log in a new drive place the highlight bar on an entry with a drive letter, e.g. ― A: ® and press . Instead of using you can position the mouse and click the . When you change either directory or drive or both the new current directory is reflected in the horizontal window in the centre of the screen. File template. If a programme allows you to specify a file template you may do so via the current key combination. You enter the template you want in the horizon- tal window and press . Display is refreshed and any matching files are shown. Shows full details of a file in a listing. Pressing this combination shows the entire information on a the currently highlighted file from the listing in the hor- izontal window, i.e. file size, date and time it was last archived. 9. File choice or command cancellation To choose a file simply press when the highlight bar is located on it. If you use then the file choice operation is aborted and you are returned to where you left off in the current programme.