[comp.misc] Wanted: WordStar-like editor

filbo@ssyx.ucsc.edu (Bela Lubkin) (06/10/89)

In article <1309@hounix.UUCP> chuckb@hounix.UUCP (Chuck Bentley) writes:
>Some time ago I remember seeing emacs running like WS.  The guy told me
>he simpley customized the keys the way he wanted.
There are two problems with this: EMACS is huge, and it doesn't act like WS.
That is, I can bind the right keys to the right actions, but they won't do
exactly the right things.  This really throws me when I go back and forth
between systems (and editors).  e.g. in WS, blocks are marked as character
streams; when a block is moved or copied, the block markers move to mark the
moved/new copy; etc.  There are dozens or hundreds of small behaviors like this
which could be simulated in a programmable editor like EMACS, but at the
expense of programming time, bugs, etc.  I've done this before with "DME" under
AmigaDOS.  The results are decent but not very good, and some operations have
to be simulated at a character-by-character level, in DME code, which makes
them very slow.

I now have about 10 requests for information, and one lead from a programmer
who says he has an MS-DOS WS clone that is in portable C and might be brought
over to UNIX.  I've asked his permission to forward that message, or a new
message specifically written for the purpose, to those who have requested
information; I haven't gotten a response yet.

I've also been told of a commercial package called Fenix.  Does anyone know
what it is, what it costs, etc.?  A commercial package is probably not going
to help -- I'm certainly not going to pay to have it put up on 3 different
systems that I use -- but I'd like to know more anyway.

What is the SIMPLEST full-screen editor available for UNIX, with source?  I can
write an editor, but not under UNIX.  Memory and file management, termcap and
curses would all be new to me.  Examining a simple editor would give me an idea
how difficult it would be to write this thing.

I am astonished that no CP/M or MS-DOS programmer, frustrated with VI and
EMACS, has yet written a simple WS-based programmer's editor (akin to the
Turbo language editors).  I'm cross-posting this to alt.msdos-programmer, but
please direct followups to comp.editors only.