[comp.editors] PE

marwk@levels.sait.edu.au (01/01/91)

Some years ago an editor called PE was used by a co-worker.  He liked
it very much but does not now have the use of it.

Is it available still?

I have used it too.  I think it was PD, but I am not sure as I no longer
have access to the computer which had it on.

This Personal Editor was a nice little editor with very sensible commands,
and not too many of them.

It is possible that it had special features like an assemble mode in which
case was upper before a ';' and lower after it.

Any pointers would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Ray

Shawn.Hayes@samba.acs.unc.edu (Shawn Hayes) (01/02/91)

   The original PE is/was a program that was written by/for IBM.  I don't
think it was ever made Public Domain, although it certainly made the rounds.
There is at least one other editor that is now going by the name PE, Personal
Editor from Buzzwords International.

staff@cadlab.sublink.ORG (Alex Martelli) (01/02/91)

marwk@levels.sait.edu.au writes:

>Some years ago an editor called PE was used by a co-worker.  He liked
>it very much but does not now have the use of it.
>Is it available still?
>I have used it too.  I think it was PD, but I am not sure as I no
>longer have access to the computer which had it on.

Both PE, and PE2, were still on the IBM PC software catalogs in 1988.
PE was a regular program product, PE2 was one of the wonderful little
"Personally Developed Software" entries (as were the Imperial Space
Command game, and so many other nifties), thus PE2 cost far less,
despite being much better than good old PE.  Anyway, PDSW was terminated
in IBM sometime in 87-88... maybe the old PE is still on the catalog,
although I would doubt it.  Other IBM internal-use-only editors, over
the years, mimicked and evolved the PE interface - I recall huge,
powerful E3 (I think its developer later left IBM and for a while
marketed a similar program on its own... maybe someone can followup on
this?), and tiny, brilliant T, the 9-Kbyte wonder.

Good luck in finding some follow-up look-alike, or, if you're still on
Messydos, some old, used, dusty but workable storeroom remainder...

-- 
Alex Martelli - CAD.LAB s.p.a., v. Stalingrado 53, Bologna, Italia
Email: (work:) staff@cadlab.sublink.org, (home:) alex@am.sublink.org
Phone: (work:) ++39 (51) 371099, (home:) ++39 (51) 250434; 
Fax: ++39 (51) 366964 (work only), Fidonet: 332/401.3 (home only).

hollen@megatek (Dion Hollenbeck) (01/03/91)

In article <15796.2780ada0@levels.sait.edu.au> marwk@levels.sait.edu.au writes:
>
> Some years ago an editor called PE was used by a co-worker.  He liked
> it very much but does not now have the use of it.
> 
> Is it available still?

As far as I know, NO.  It was upgraded  to version 2.0 (I was using 1.0)
and then became no longer available.

> I have used it too.  I think it was PD, but I am not sure as I no longer
> have access to the computer which had it on.

Definitely NOT PD.  The logo and copyright say "IBM".

The editor I am using now is Multi-Edit by American Cybernetics in
Tempe, Az.  This has the same basic principle as Emacs (which I use
at work) in that the core text, window and buffer functions are
written in C and everything else in a macro language using the core
C functions (macro language somewhat like Pascal).  In this manner,
you can make any changes you like to the user interface and most of
the functions.  You can re-do the key mappings to make it look like
any editor you want (PE included).


--
	Dion Hollenbeck             (619) 455-5590 x2814
	Megatek Corporation, 9645 Scranton Road, San Diego, CA  92121
        uunet!megatek!hollen       or  hollen@megatek.uucp

linden@fwi.uva.nl (Onno van der Linden) (01/04/91)

 There is a PE2 clone called CSE available from <msdos.editor> on simtel
and mirrors/msdos/editor on wuarchive.There is one bug/feature:the shell
command only works on the drive command.com is on (this is for version 3.10).

Onno van der Linden
linden@fwi.uva.nl

mshiels@tmsoft.uucp (Michael A. Shiels) (01/04/91)

Too bad you didn't post this earlier.  The company I work for just through
out a 10x10x20 garbage bin full of old software/hardware etc that we
just couldn't get rid of.  Lots of old PC Jr software.  Lots of old IBM/Compaq
etc software (INCLUDING SHRINK WRAPPED PE).  Sorry.  It would be really hard
to find a copy I would think in most stores. 

cortesi@informix.com (David Cortesi) (01/05/91)

In article <581@cadlab.sublink.ORG> staff@cadlab.sublink.ORG (Alex Martelli) writes:
>...  Other IBM internal-use-only editors, over
>the years, mimicked and evolved the PE interface - I recall huge,
>powerful E3 (I think its developer later left IBM and for a while
>marketed a similar program on its own... maybe someone can followup on
>this?)

Oh yes, please! I used E3 to write a book and about 10,000 lines of
Pascal and C in 86-87. It remains my all-time favorite editor,
blindingly fast on a 286, user-extensible in a C-like syntax, just
a wonderful editor in almost every way.  I think of it whenever vi
tells me "ls: Not an editor command."  Why? Because when E3 was given a
command it couldn't parse, it automatically shelled it out
to DOS, so the DOS command set was an extension of E3's.  Hey, vi, if
you *know* it isn't an editor command...

E3 had only three shortcomings: one, it was labelled IBM Internal Use
Only; two, its pattern search wasn't full RE; and three, it had very
nearly the worst documentation I ever tried to read.

robertre@microsoft.UUCP (Robert Reichel ms2) (01/10/91)

In article <581@cadlab.sublink.ORG> staff@cadlab.sublink.ORG (Alex Martelli) writes:
>I recall huge,
>powerful E3 (I think its developer later left IBM and for a while
>marketed a similar program on its own... maybe someone can followup on
>this?), and tiny, brilliant T, the 9-Kbyte wonder.

I believe the editor you're describing is called Slick, and it is alive
and well.  I don't know the torrid history of IBM editors, but having used
Slick a lot and PE a little I find them very similar.  For example, the
funky expand/contract tabs behavior described by another poster is there
exactly.

Slick is huge, and has a REXX-like macro language that I find very easy
to use.  Key bindings are similar to Emacs, and it supports Emacs and
Brief emulation modes (not being an Emacs or Brief user, I don't know how
good they are).  It's very fast, and I haven't been able to create a file
too big for it to handle.  It works under OS/2 and Dos.

I don't remember what it costs.

Slick is available from many retail outlets, or directly from:

MicroEdge, Inc
Calibre Chase Dr  Apt 100-307
Raleigh, NC  27609
(919) 831-0662

The guy answering the phone is the author, so support is pretty good :-).

This is not an endorsement by Microsoft or anyone else but me.
-- 

Robert Reichel		 {decvax,uunet,uw-beaver}!microsoft!robertre