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Aucb.827 fa.editor-p utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!C70:editor-people Fri Apr 2 16:26:50 1982 line-at-a-time I/O >From Admin.JQJ@SU-SCORE Fri Apr 2 16:23:49 1982 CC.KORNER@UTEXAS-20 brings up the interesting problem of what to do if your hardware supports only a line-oriented (presumably half duplex) terminal communications protocol, with (again presumably) a break set consisting of only CR and perhaps ATTN/BREAK. Since this is in fact a fairly common situation in the "real world" (e.g. most large IBM systems), it behooves us to look a bit closer at whether such a protocol can still yield a reasonable full-screen display editor.

Certainly, some sort of display editor CAN be implemented; consider the various IBM editors (Edgar, XEDIT, display Wylbur, etc., some of which require a 3270, while others work on arbitrary Ascii CRTs). For that matter, consider DEC's TV (display TECO for the -10 and -20). In all these cases, you have a command mode which prompts in a command echo area, and an insert mode in which the cursor is located at the point of insertion. Of course, you can't have individual keystrokes performing arbitrary commands, but at least you can have a permanent window (or windows) into your file, BS for correcting typing errors, and a reasonable macro language for extending the command set.

Those of us wedded to the Emacs tradition of editing tend to reject such editors out of hand, but I've noted that people familiar with the better editors on IBM hardware tend to have the same attitudes about Emacs. Odd.

I'm sure many such editors exist, though perhaps not many for the CYBER system that Korner is targeting towards. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone with experience in implementing such editors, be it on CYBER systems or on other hardware. -------

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