JOE for Windows tips

JOE for Windows is a native port of Joe's Own Editor. Unlike the Cygwin version, it is written (more-or-less) directly against the Windows API and does not need a large, external compatibility layer. It is compiled with the standard Microsoft compiler and has no external dependencies. Changes were made to better integrate JOE into a Windows environment, such as a more Windows-friendly file layout and mouse support. Other additions include drag-and-drop and clipboard integration.

^K C in JOE and JSTAR will paste text from the Windows clipboard if no block is set. JOE also maps ^S to copy the current block into the clipboard. If you use a different personality, you may use the context menu (right click in the editor) to copy into/paste from the Windows clipboard.

You can drag files from Windows explorer onto JOE, and it will open those files.

JOE for Windows comes with several builtin color schemes, which are more suitable for a GUI environment. They can be selected through the context menu (right click on the editor window). The font and cursor type may also be changed there.

JOE 4.0 introduced pop-up virtual terminals accessible via the F1-F4 keys. These terminals are improved over the previous type (which were invoked with ^K ') in that they interpret ANSI codes and can update any part of the screen. This is (partially) supported in the Windows version with the help of winpty (by Ryan Prichard).

By default, the standard Windows command interpreter (cmd) is loaded when you start a new virtual terminal, but this is configurable by modifying the vt.bat script. It can be made to run Powershell or Cygwin out-of-the-box, or another shell with a little modification. Powershell and cmd both require winpty (which screen-scrapes a hidden console), whereas Cygwin can be used more directly through a pseudo terminal with the help of the socat package. (socat does not come installed by default on Cygwin, so if you plan to use it you should install it.)

Generally, you should copy the vt directory to your local user directory and modify vt.bat to choose your shell (instructions can be found at the top of that file).

xcopy /S /I "C:\Program Files (x86)\JoeEditor\vt" "%LOCALAPPDATA%\JoeEditor\vt"
joe "%LOCALAPPDATA%"\JoeEditor\vt\vt.bat

There is currently a bug in winpty that does not propagate ^C to some programs (most notably, the shell). Attempts to fix this delayed a couple of releases, so as of now it is currently broken. This, however, does not apply to Cygwin.

Shell windows made with ^K ' work, but with some limitations. Programs that interact directly with the console interface (e.g., PowerShell) do not work and will appear to hang when run. You may be able to stop them by moving the cursor away from the end of file and pressing ^C to terminate. If that doesn't work, try task manager.

Some programs can be made to work, for example Python will behave if given the -i switch. The shell windows interact with applications similarly to the way that mintty does. If there is a workaround for mintty, it will likely work for JOE.

JOE for Windows comes in two installation flavors: Windows installer (MSI) and standalone EXE. You can find standalone versions on sourceforge, in the standalone directories for releases since 4.1. There is one per flavor, each with every syntax and rc file baked into it, so that no external files are required for operation.

Currently, the only limitation present in the standalone version is that pop-up virtual terminals, mentioned in the above section, are not supported. They can be made to work by placing a vt directory where JOE would normally expect to find one, but you'd need to get it from the normal install.

Since the joerc file is embedded within the EXE, it is a little less straightforward to customize the standalone binaries. They will still try to read conf\joerc (or jmacsrc, jpicorc, etc) relative to the EXE file as well as in your home directory as normal (see below), so it can be overridden by placing an rc file in one of those locations.

However, that defeats the purpose of having a standalone version, and it is possible to easily customize the EXE to your liking. JOE for Windows embeds its required files as resources in the EXE. It is possible to change a file's resources without recompiling it. There is a tool to do this that is known to work: Resource Hacker.

Once Resource Hacker is installed, here are the general steps to customize your executable:

  1. Make a backup of the standalone EXE file.
  2. Right click it in Windows Explorer, and select "Open using Resource Hacker"
  3. In the left pane, expand the RCData section
  4. Find all of the embedded files in this section, prefixed with F:*
  5. Expand the file you want to edit/replace and select the lone entry beneath it, 1033
  6. You will see the current contents in the right pane. Note that many files are compressed so you will see a hex dump for those (but they can safely be replaced without you having to compress your version)
  7. Right click on 1033 and select Replace Resource. This will bring up a file picker and you can select the file you'd like to insert.
  8. When you are finished, select Save As from the file menu to generate your customized joe.exe.

JOE for Windows uses a different (but similar) file layout than JOE for UNIXen. Most files important to the editor are found at the install location of the joe.exe file, usually C:\Program Files (x86)\JoeEditor. *rc files are stored in the conf\ subdirectory, *.jsf files in syntax\ and color schemes in colors\.

You can override any of these files or settings by sticking a copy in your "home" directory. This directory is found in %LOCALAPPDATA%\JoeEditor (where %LOCALAPPDATA% is the value of that environment variable -- it's usually C:\Users\You\AppData\Local\JoeEditor).

You can toggle fullscreen mode with Alt-Enter to relive the old days. Even better, find a CP437 font!

What is not implemented or different?

JOE for Windows strives for feature parity with mainline JOE, but some things have not been implemented: