jans@mako.UUCP (Jan Steinman) (06/18/85)
Readers of Dr. Dobbs may have noticed a full page ad for an editor from a
company called MIX. The specs looked nearly as interesting as the price:
$29.95 + $5.00 for shipping. Being a fan of editors in general, and cheap
ones in particular, I gave it a try.
MIX is great! This one should join the ranks of TURBO Pascal and Software
Toolworks C/80 in the cheap-but-good hall of fame!
In short, it does everything the ad says, with few problems. The
documentation is very good, although it is organized more along "tutorial"
rather than "reference" lines. Some of the better features: split-screen
editing of two files, or one file in two different places. Big files are
buffered and handled easily. Extensibility through macros, which behave just
like built-in commands. Complete keyboard mapping. Ability to look at (read
only) other files than the one or two being edited, et al.
I have Wordstar, VEDIT (both overpriced, VEDIT buggy and user unfriendly),
TEXTPRO and ZED (machine-specific for the H89, but cheap) and will now use
MIX over any of them.
There are a few peeves, but not many for a product who's version is "1.1.0".
The biggest is that I cannot figure out how to read a macro package once the
editor is running. This means that you can use exactly one macro package at
a time, and it must be specified (or defaulted) when the editor is run. This
problem (in combination with my second peeve) is annoying, as it would be nice
to have a bunch of macro goodies around that could be called in as needed.
Peeve #2: Entry/exit speed. Although the editor was very responsive in use
invoking and leaving the editor is slow. With my hard disk, it is bearable,
but would probably get to you on a floppy system. Most "buffered" (arbitrary
length files) editors exhibit this problem as they tear a big file into
several pieces so some of it can be edited on a 64k (or smaller) machine, but
MIX is slow to enter even when editing small files, mostly due to reading in
the initialization file. (Larger init files make entry slower, which feeds
peeve #1.) Peeve #3: Tab interpretation. MIX has a mode ("BC" command) where
blanks are replaced with tabs, but the cursor acts like it always has blanks.
This makes maintaining columnar text tedious! Changing "LDA" to "LADX" makes
everything move over a column (in insert mode) even though a tab follows the
"LDA"!
My other peeves are minor. If you have faults with the editors you use, try
MIX. You may have faults with it, but one of them will not be its price!
I have no connection with this company. I have used several tradenames in
this review. My employer doesn't much care what I type here.
--
:::::: Jan Steinman Box 1000, MS 61-161 (w)503/685-2843 ::::::
:::::: tektronix!tekecs!jans Wilsonville, OR 97070 (h)503/657-7703 ::::::zemon@fritz.UUCP (Art Zemon) (06/25/85)
One additional comment on MIX. When I ordered my copy, the
phone person *volunteered* the information that it is sold with
a 30 day money-back guarantee. I can't think of anything better
than that.
After 30 days I happily kept my copy.
-- Art Z.
--
-- Art Zemon
FileNet Corp.
...! {decvax, ihnp4, ucbvax} !trwrb!felix!zemon