crm@romeo.cs.duke.edu (Charlie Martin) (08/03/88)
In-reply-to: peter@ficc.UUCP's message of 1 Aug 88 18:59:03 GMT Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: where to do line editing? References: <678@gtx.com> <593@blblbl.UUCP> <8263@brl-smoke.ARPA> <1188@ficc.UUCP> In article <1188@ficc.UUCP> peter@ficc.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes: In article <8263@brl-smoke.ARPA>, gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) writes: > Terminal input editing belongs where the input is being done, > namely the terminal. How IBM mainframe of you. How about putting file editing in the terminal as well? Actually, the screen editor I liked best of all editors ever was a probably bootlegged HP editor on the HP1000 (who remembers *that* machine!). It used the smarts of the HP 26xx terminals and simply downloaded a chunk of file along with some other stuff into the terminal; you edited the file with the terminal, and when you were ready you said "okay I'm done with this chunk" and it sucked it back up (no smart remarks). Command line editing worked the same way, and worked like a charm. It may sound like a dreadful way -- and it was a little trouble, sometimes, that the terminal tab stops were hard to download -- but the only thing that comes close in utility is GNU Emacs with special modes. But I could run this editor on the HP1000 -- which was not a real performer: the primary advantage to it was that you could drop it a meter and it would continue to run, the circuit boards looked like they were built onto green masonite -- *while* hard real-time work was being done, and not slow the processor at all. Notice what I said: not "not slow the processor appreciably" but "not slow the processor AT ALL" -- at least until you left the file. Since the chunks could be 100 lines at a time, or could be edited completely offline by making a tape on the terminal, this was not usually a problem. Charlie Martin (crm@cs.duke.edu,mcnc!duke!crm)
chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) (08/03/88)
>In article <8263@brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn) writes: >>Terminal input editing belongs where the input is being done, >>namely the terminal. >In article <1188@ficc.UUCP> peter@ficc.UUCP (Peter da Silva) answers: >How IBM mainframe of you. How about putting file editing in the terminal >as well? In article <12139@duke.cs.duke.edu> crm@romeo.cs.duke.edu (Charlie Martin) notes: >Actually, the screen editor I liked best of all editors ever was a >probably bootlegged HP editor on the HP1000 (who remembers *that* >machine!). [description elided] I used a similar editor on an HP 3060A board test system, which used an HP 9825A `desktop calculator' (a bizarre machine: built in the mid 1970s or so, it used a 16-bit SOS [Silicon on Sapphire, for us software types :-) ] cpu; the unit ran about $10K, in mid-70s dollars). I really liked that editor, but then that would be natural, since I wrote it myself. (The 9825A ran something called HPL, a curious mix of BASIC and FORTRAN and APL. One of its unusual features was that, to speed interpretation, the input section would delete unnecessary parentheses from expressions. Hence if you wrote A <- (B C) + (1 + rE) * 4 it would edit this to A <- B C + (1 + rE) * 4 The <- here represents a left-pointing arrow. All variables were in uppercase save the special `r' variables, which were a dynamic array of sorts. r variables were created when mentioned; the syntax was r<expr>, and hence one could use another r variable as an indirect, and write expressions like A <- rr0 r1 + r(r(rE+2)+3) The adjacent `rr0 r1' implied multiplication.) Ah, the joys of summer jobs in high school.... (And a lesson in spotting nerds: other kids mowed lawns or delivered papers; I programmed $100K systems test machines :-) .) -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163) Domain: chris@mimsy.umd.edu Path: uunet!mimsy!chris
peter@ficc.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (08/04/88)
In article ... crm@romeo.cs.duke.edu (Charlie Martin) writes: > In article <1188@ficc.UUCP> peter@ficc.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes: > > In article <8263@brl-smoke.ARPA>, gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) writes: > > > Terminal input editing belongs where the input is being done, > > > namely the terminal. > > How IBM mainframe of you. How about putting file editing in the terminal > > as well? > Actually, the screen editor I liked best of all editors ever was a > probably bootlegged HP editor on the HP1000 (who remembers *that* > machine!). Strangely enough, I do. I remember the editor, too. You have a lot of chutzpah to hold this old monstrosity up as a good idea. Though the road-race game that ran in the terminal was quite a bit of fun... -- Peter da Silva, Ferranti International Controls Corporation, sugar!ficc!peter. "You made a TIME MACHINE out of a VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE?" "Well, I couldn't afford another deLorean." "But how do you ever get it up to 88 miles per hour????"