psc@lznv.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (12/16/87)
<In Syracuse, you dress in a tie; in Ephesus, you juggle . . . or die!> In article <2215@dasys1.UUCP>, manes@dasys1.UUCP (Steve Manes) writes: > In article <17053@bu-cs.BU.EDU> madd@buita.UUCP (Jim Frost) writes: > >Another item might be "user-modifiable." Almost everything about > >PC-Write is configurable if you try. > > I was a die-hard PC-Write (registered) fan for years. Most of my work > with editors however has been source code. . . . > The major problem I had with PC-Write was > that I couldn't figure out how to get it to enter tabs into text rather > than multiple spaces. The latter really slows you down on editing and > adds about 30% to the size of an average C source file. > + Steve Manes {decvax!philabs!cmcl2!hombre,uunet!iuvax!bsu-cs}!magpie!manes (Any relation to the PC Magazine editor?) It's a problem. You can enter a tab character by holding down the ALT key and typing the Ascii code for a tab (nine) on the keypad. And *then* you can redefine the TAB key (or control-I, or both) to have that same effect. But PC-Write will only *show* a tab character as a circle, instead of indenting appropriately. This is a nuisance if you're editing source code. It's a *disaster* if you're trying to type a table in your word processor, and you don't know how wide the columns have to be yet. In 2.71, there are at least commands to expand tabs into spaces, and compress spaces to tabs. These are presumably based on the tab settings in the ruler lines. (Yeah, and you can't set a tab at the left, right, or paragraph margin.) PC-Write 3.0 is supposed to expand tabs dynamically (i.e., the right way for most of us), in addition to finally breaking the 64K barrier, and supporting multiple columns. First quarter 88, maybe. But it's fast, it's reasonably easy to learn and use, it's got some very powerful features (which often aren't as easy to learn or use), it's well supported, it works wonderfully with Ascii files (even with automatic rejustification), and it's pretty cheap ($89). More importantly for me, I can legally and ethically give it to someone and say, "Here, try this out. If you like it, buy it." Sort of an unlimited site license. As for programming editors: My fingers know vi; if it was that important, I'd send the MKS folks some money. As it is, the editor in the Turbo C integrated environment is usually good enough. When it isn't, I fall back to PC-Write. -Paul S. R. Chisholm, {ihnp4,cbosgd,allegra,rutgers}!mtune!lznv!psc AT&T Mail !psrchisholm, Internet psc@lznv.att.com, PC-Write #023254 I'm not speaking for my employer, I'm just speaking my mind.