steve@geac.UUCP (Steve Lane) (08/17/88)
I have been using vi for years, and was glad to see that MKS provided it for MS-DOS when I had to do an IBM PC-AT application recently. However, I needed to edit files containing 8-bit characters, in order to draw fancy boxes etc. When I edited these files with vi, it noted that I had 264 non-ascii characters, but chopped them to 7 bits before saving the changed file. Is there any option in vi that maintains 8-bit data on exit that anyone is aware of? It obviously recognizes that they're there! And I doubt whether this "feature" is particular to MKS. Any help would be appreciated (other than suggestions to RTFM which happens to be 20 miles away). I'd prefer to stay with vi if possible -- it has served me well in the past. Steve. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Steve Lane, UUCP: ...[yunexus, utgpu]!geac!steve Software Solutions (416) 221-2830 108-755 Steeles Ave W, Willowdale, Ontario, M2R 2S6.
mike@pcsbst.UUCP (Mike Schroeder) (08/24/88)
In article <3160@geac.UUCP> steve@geac.UUCP (Steve Lane) writes: > [....] > >Is there any option in vi that maintains 8-bit data on exit that anyone >is aware of? It obviously recognizes that they're there! And I doubt >whether this "feature" is particular to MKS. > Well, AT&T's SV3.1 vi supports 8-bit character sets (all in keeping with national language support). Must admit I don't know whether you can get it for your machine. Mike Schroeder (cochise!mike@pcsbst.UUCP) PCS GmbH; Pfaelzer-Wald-Str. 36; D-8000 Muenchen 90; W. Germany UUCP: ...uunet!unido!pcsbst!msc PS: anyone seen my disclaimer wandering around ?-)
wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler) (08/27/88)
In article <3160@geac.UUCP>, steve@geac.UUCP (Steve Lane) writes: > I have been using vi for years, and was glad to see that MKS provided it > for MS-DOS. > > However, I needed to edit files containing 8-bit characters, in order > to draw fancy boxes etc. When I edited these files with vi, it noted that > I had 264 non-ascii characters, but chopped them to 7 bits before saving > the changed file. If you use the eightbits option, vi will not mash the bytes with the top bit set. Once you have done that, you can set the national and native options to choose how you want to display these characters. You mentioned that you wanted to view the IBM PC line drawing characters, so I suspect your best bet would be to set native. Once you find the settings you prefer, you can put the appropriate command in your ex.rc file so vi will set them each time it starts. It looks for ex.rc in the current directory, then in your home directory if you have $HOME set, or in the root directory if not. -- Gerry Wheeler Phone: (519)884-2251 Mortice Kern Systems Inc. UUCP: uunet!watmath!mks!wheels 35 King St. North BIX: join mks Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2W9 CompuServe: 73260,1043