[comp.editors] A weird error message

bhoughto@pima.intel.com (Blair P. Houghton) (02/24/91)

In article <23887@ttidca.TTI.COM> hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath) writes:
>In article <15353@megatest.UUCP> pat@megatest.UUCP (Patrick Powers) writes:
>}I worked on a UNIX system that had an editor called e.  Once entered
>
>Hey!  That's my favorite editor.  I'm using it now, in fact.  The "highly

Actually, a good, solid, control-D will get you out, as well.

Umm, it seems to have come with my local Ultrix, but I have
no documentation.  Anyone care to send me a man-page?

				--Blair
				  "If the domain is public,
				   the range is infinite."

guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) (02/26/91)

>>}I worked on a UNIX system that had an editor called e.  Once entered
>>
>>Hey!  That's my favorite editor.  I'm using it now, in fact.  The "highly
>
>Actually, a good, solid, control-D will get you out, as well.
>
>Umm, it seems to have come with my local Ultrix, but I have
>no documentation.  Anyone care to send me a man-page?

	auspex% ls -li /usr/ucb/e /usr/ucb/ex
	2184 -rwxr-xr-x  6 root       196608 Apr 24  1989 /usr/ucb/e
	2184 -rwxr-xr-x  6 root       196608 Apr 24  1989 /usr/ucb/ex
    
from a SunOS 4.0.3 machine, but the fact that they're links to the same
binary comes from BSD, as does the man page EX(1):

EX(1)                    USER COMMANDS                      EX(1)

NAME
     ex, edit, e - line editor


and the basic code in "main()":

	/*
	 * Main procedure.  Process arguments and then
	 * transfer control to the main command processing loop
	 * in the routine commands.  We are entered as either "ex", "edit", "vi"
	 * or "view" and the distinction is made here.  Actually, we are "vi" if
	 * there is a 'v' in our name, "view" is there is a 'w', and "edit" if
	 * there is a 'd' in our name.  For edit we just diddle options;
	 * for vi we actually force an early visual command.
	 */

	...

		/*
		 * Figure out how we were invoked: ex, edit, vi, view.
		 */
		ivis = any('v', av[0]);	/* "vi" */
		if (any('w', av[0]))	/* "view" */
			value(READONLY) = 1;
		if (any('d', av[0])) {	/* "edit" */
			value(OPEN) = 0;
			value(REPORT) = 1;
			value(MAGIC) = 0;
		}

so I suspect the answer on Ultrix, as well, is "it's just another name
for 'ex'".