chudnall@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Christopher Hudnall) (03/25/91)
On 8-bit compatibility and vi: Vi's single greatest weakness is the inability to properly handle non-text data. In particular, this line-length problem has to go. To test whether this has been done, the easiest approach is to see if the prospective vi can edit a program binary correctly. This requires being able to handle lines of any length, or simply not using the idea of a ``line'' as an important internal structure. The also requires being able to see and manipulate octal data. This problem has literally made vi *unusable* for certain tasks, whereas the lack of full programmability has only made some tasks less convenient than they might be---hence my emphasis on this issue. Good Luck