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Consider all the different ways Epsilon has for getting to the right place in a file. Any editor has commands for moving by characters, lines, or words. But does your editor know how to move by sentences? Paragraphs? Can it skip over a parenthesized expression in your C++ program, counting matching parentheses, or jump to the #if statement that matches a particular #endif? Epsilon can.

Suppose you're looking at a subroutine call in your C source file. The subroutine happens to be defined in another file. With Epsilon, you can press a key and jump instantly to the definition of the subroutine. Epsilon automatically loads the appropriate file and goes right to the definition. Press another key to return to the original file. This makes it easy to work on large projects; jump from function to function with simple keystrokes.

Bookmarks in action. Epsilon also has a bookmark mechanism that lets you say "remember this place". Later, press a key and Epsilon goes back there instantly. Epsilon can remember up to 36 bookmarks at once, and can even remember them from one session to the next.

(By the way, each of the screen shots you'll see in this document are linked to higher-resolution versions of the same image. If you'd like to view any of these screen images in more detail, just follow the link.)

Don't know where in the file you need to be? Try Epsilon's searching commands. You can give Epsilon complicated regular-expression patterns, and its highly optimized searching engine will locate matches in no time. Epsilon also searches (and replaces) with or without case folding, restricts matches to whole words, matches patterns that span multiple lines, searches incrementally as you type a pattern, and much more.

Epsilon's built-in grep command searches for text in multiple files. Give it some text to search for (or a pattern, with all the same options as above available) and a file name with wild cards, and Epsilon constructs a list of lines containing the text, so you can see all the matches at once. Select one, press a key, and Epsilon jumps to the file and line that matched (even if you've changed other parts of the file since the search). Jump from match to match as needed, with simple keystrokes. Epsilon uses an enhanced syntax for file patterns so you can easily tell it to search files meeting certain conditions: for example, search in all .c or .h files whose names start with a digit, in either the C:\NewProject hierarchy or anywhere on drives D or E.

Now, take a look at Epsilon's file comparing commands. Epsilon has a built-in "diff" utility that compares two files and lists the lines that have changed. Epsilon can show the changes with color coding, mark the changes with #ifdef/#endif lines, or generate a traditional all-text summary of changes. But that's not all--it also has an interactive change finder, so you can conveniently compare two small blocks of text and go right to the first characters that differ. Plus another compare function that looks through word lists or similar things, and prepares lists of items in one list but not the other, or in both lists. Many editors have no built-in comparison function; Epsilon has five, so you can always use the right tool for the job.

Check out this list of Epsilon's built-in commands.

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Last Updated: 1 October 2009