# Starting ebe

## Basics

First ebe needs to be in a directory contained in the PATH environment variable. In addition for ebe to use any language other than English, the file "ebe_xx.qm" where xx is a 2 letter language code also needs to be in the same directory as the ebe program. If you have started ebe from the shell script created by the Linux/OS X install script, the actual program, named "ebe.exe", and the ".qm" files will be in a subdirectory named "ebe.d".

Ebe will read a file named ".ebe.ini" from the current directory when it starts to retrieve settings from the last time it was executed. The settings can be edited using the Edit->Edit Settings menu option. The file format is also simple enough to edit with a text editor.

## Starting without a file name

Assuming that ebe is in one of the directories in the PATH variable, it can be started by entering "ebe" on the command line:

         ebe

Ebe will start with an empty edit window. You can then enter source code and use the File->Save as menu option to save the file before running it.

## Starting with a source file name

You can enter the name of the source file on the command line after "ebe":

        ebe hello.asm

In this case ebe will load "hello.asm" in the source window.

## Starting with a project file name

An ebe project file is simply a text file with file names: one per line. The name of a project file must end with the extension ".ebe". Simply add the project file name to the command line:

        ebe hello.ebe

Here the project file is named "hello.ebe" and will contain a collection of file names. Each of the files in "hello.ebe" will be opened in a separate tabbed subwindow in the source frame. There can be non source files in a project file which makes it convenient to manage a data file as part of a project.