jv@mhres.mh.nl (Johan Vromans) (05/27/88)
Okay fellows, ksh is wonderfull. One of its most powerfull features is
command line editing. You can use your familiar editor-style to edit them.
But WHY does ksh not allow cursor (=arrow) keys to be used? Vi does. Emacs
does. Even VMS does it.
--
Johan Vromans | jv@mh.nl via European backbone
Multihouse N.V., Gouda, the Netherlands | uucp: ..{uunet!}mcvax!mh.nl!jv
"It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness"lvc@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Lawrence V. Cipriani) (05/29/88)
In article <1887@mhres.mh.nl>, jv@mhres.mh.nl (Johan Vromans) writes: > But WHY does ksh not allow cursor (=arrow) keys to be used? Vi does. Emacs > does. Even VMS does it. > Johan Vromans | jv@mh.nl via European backbone I think there are at least two reasons for this, one - ksh is a big program and adding in the terminfo/termcap functions to implement the arrow keys would make it too big for some machines (even with only one of the command line editors compiled in), two - Korn wanted to make ksh independent of terminfo/termcap to reduce portability and debugging problems. I know of one person that changed ksh to implement this capability, so it is possible. Why is this such a desirable feature? Just curious. -- Larry Cipriani, AT&T Network Systems and Ohio State University Domain: lvc@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Path: ...!cbosgd!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!lvc (weird but right)
gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) (05/29/88)
In article <1887@mhres.mh.nl> jv@mhres.mh.nl (Johan Vromans) writes: >But WHY does ksh not allow cursor (=arrow) keys to be used? Different terminal transmit different sequences when an arrow key is pressed. Assuming that ksh allows user-specified editing key bindings, as the BRL Bourne shell does, you CAN use arrow keys. # .shbind -- source to bind history/editing keypad keys # following to support ANSI terminal keypads (e.g. VT100): bind prefix-2 '^[O' bind prefix-2 '^[[' bind up-history '^XA' bind down-history '^XB' bind forward-char '^XC' bind backward-char '^XD' bind beginning-of-line '^XH'
stan@sdba.UUCP (Stan Brown) (05/31/88)
> > Okay fellows, ksh is wonderfull. One of its most powerfull features is > command line editing. You can use your familiar editor-style to edit them. > > But WHY does ksh not allow cursor (=arrow) keys to be used? Vi does. Emacs > does. Even VMS does it. > > -- > Johan Vromans | jv@mh.nl via European backbone > Multihouse N.V., Gouda, the Netherlands | uucp: ..{uunet!}mcvax!mh.nl!jv > "It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness" vi does not always allow use of the arrow keys. For example on Fortune termials they send [Escape]]]letter][Cr] this causes it to pitch fits . stan -- Stan Brown S. D. Brown & Associates 404-292-9497 (uunet gatech)!sdba!stan "vi forever"
daveh@marob.MASA.COM (Dave Hammond) (06/01/88)
In article <1887@mhres.mh.nl> jv@mhres.mh.nl (Johan Vromans) writes: > >Okay fellows, ksh is wonderfull. One of its most powerfull features is >command line editing. You can use your familiar editor-style to edit them. > >But WHY does ksh not allow cursor (=arrow) keys to be used? Vi does. Emacs >does. Even VMS does it. Ksh does not make use of any terminal-independent characteristics, such as cursor-keys. External editors are emulated using only newlines, returns and spaces to modify the edit line. Making use of cursor-keys also requires parsing multiple character sequences which would add some overhead. Dave Hammond UUCP: ...!marob!daveh --------------------------------
jv@mhres.mh.nl (Johan Vromans) (06/02/88)
From article <284@marob.MASA.COM>, by daveh@marob.MASA.COM (Dave Hammond): > In article <1887@mhres.mh.nl> jv@mhres.mh.nl (Johan Vromans) writes: >>But WHY does ksh not allow cursor (=arrow) keys to be used? > > Ksh does not make use of any terminal-independent characteristics, such as > cursor-keys. External editors are emulated using only newlines, returns > and spaces to modify the edit line. This is oversimplification. About 50 vi and emacs editing commands are emulated. > Making use of cursor-keys also requires > parsing multiple character sequences which would add some overhead. Sequences like ESC-d (delete-word), ESC-f (forward-word) etc. are handled, as are ESC-* (filename generation) and ESC-= (file list). Adding some overhead to break the misnotion that Unix is user-unfriendly pays. -- Johan Vromans | jv@mh.nl via European backbone Multihouse N.V., Gouda, the Netherlands | uucp: ..{uunet!}mcvax!mh.nl!jv "It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness"
rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim) (06/03/88)
> Okay fellows, ksh is wonderfull. One of its most powerfull features is > command line editing. You can use your familiar editor-style to edit them. > > But WHY does ksh not allow cursor (=arrow) keys to be used? Vi does. Emacs > does. Even VMS does it. > > Johan Vromans | jv@mh.nl via European backbone > Multihouse N.V., Gouda, the Netherlands | uucp: ..{uunet!}mcvax!mh.nl!jv > "It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness" Arrow and function keys are for wimps. Real programmers use control keys. (Root Boy) Jim Cottrell <rbj@icst-cmr.arpa> National Bureau of Standards Flamer's Hotline: (301) 975-5688 The opinions expressed are solely my own and do not reflect NBS policy or agreement My name is in /usr/dict/words. Is yours?
gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) (06/04/88)
In article <15850@brl-adm.ARPA> rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim) writes:
-> But WHY does ksh not allow cursor (=arrow) keys to be used? Vi does. Emacs
-> does. Even VMS does it.
-Arrow and function keys are for wimps. Real programmers use control keys.
A lot of us use mice for this.jgy@hropus.UUCP (John Young) (06/05/88)
For those of you discussing the use of arrow keys in ksh the answer is you can use them. Sometimes. One of my terminals is an HP2626x, these arrow keys send escape-D, C, A, and B for left, right, up and down respectivley. Therefore in ksh, if you use the emacs editing style (probably in vi to) you can say the following: $ alias _D=^b $ alias _C=^f $ alias _A=^p $ alias _D=^n Where ^ means the control key (with a \ in front). People whose terminals don't send ESCAPE-X are in trouble, as are those whose "X" characters happen to coincide with already used emacs editing mode esacape sequences. ksh documentaion calls these _ aliases soft-keys and they can be quite usefull: Try this one: $ alias _r='^] ^[ ^] ^X^X^W^Y^E^Y' p.s. If none of these work it's because you typed them incorrectly(or I did!) or you are using a ksh version earler than 6/3/86. John Young AT&T-BL Red Hill Rd., Middletown, NJ 07748 201-615-4412