Text File

Aucbonyx.245 net.bugs.2bsd,net.bugs.4bsd utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!duke!chico!harpo!mhtsa!eagle!ihnss!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:Onyx:jmrubin Thu Jan 28 13:53:03 1982 A suggested change for more prompt, if you're more'ing a file. It looks for vi in a specific place. This has two problems. (1) If you have a brain-damaged (or hard-copy) terminal, or your / variable isn't set correctly, vi may semi-bomb, depending on which version of vi you're using. (If it's a nice version, it will just go into open mode automatically.) (2) If you have a free login which mores a file, you give it the ability to fork a shell from vi. (shell escapes tend to die otherwise--since more looks at your variable.) (Of course, you can pipe the file into more--which destroys the ability to go into vi.)

Suggestion: (1) more should use your shell with the -c (or maybe -cf) flag to find vi. This would also be nice if vi moves, or if a new version becomes available in a non-standard place. (2) Maybe it should use some environmental varialbe to find which visual editor you like to use--maybe you like a version of emacs or teco, instead. (3) If you're on a bad terminal, it should use ex, or something similarly non-visual.

Joel Rubin

----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org> of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/

This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided:

1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles.

2. The following notice remains appended to each copy:

The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.