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MIX editor and C [message #223792] Wed, 28 August 1985 14:26 Go to next message
Anonymous
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Originally posted by: BARD@MIT-XX.ARPA (Bard Bloom)
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.1067
Posted: Wed Aug 28 14:26:42 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 30-Aug-85 01:26:55 EDT
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Lines: 13


There are ads in Byte (p. 397 for September) for MIX editor and C compiler,
for rather good prices ($30 and $40).  They look rather neat on paper -- the
editor has customization and keyboard macros and lets you run DOS from inside
the editor.  

On the other talon, almost everything looks neat on paper.  Has anyone tried
this out on a computer?  Is it worth $30?  Does it work on non-PC-compatibles?

Thanks,

Bard (Bard @ MIT-XX)
-------
Re: MIX editor and C [message #223815 is a reply to message #223792] Thu, 29 August 1985 09:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
smd is currently offline  smd
Messages: 10
Registered: May 2013
Karma: 0
Junior Member
Article-I.D.: cvl.786
Posted: Thu Aug 29 09:00:09 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 07:59:54 EDT
References: <1067@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Organization: Computer Vision Lab, U. of Maryland, College Park
Lines: 119



> 
> Has anyone tried this out on a computer?  Is it worth $30?
>

1. I am sorry that this is so long.

     I have been using the MIX editor now for about a  month
on  a Morrow MD3 Z80 CPM system.  I decided to order it over
the telephone after  reading  a  review  of  the  editor  in
net.micro.cpm.   These  are  my  impressions after using the
editor for a month.

     First of all, the service was fine.  The woman who took
my  order on the telephone said the editor would arrive in 5
or 6 days via UPS, and sure enough, it was here.

     I immediately proceeded to run the terminal setup  pro-
gram  (SETEDIT.COM,  I  believe)  to  create  the setup file
SETUP.EDT which is used by the editor.   This  is  were  the
problems   began  because  the  entry  for  the  ADM  31  in
setedit.com is not correct.  If you select the  ADM  31  and
write  a text file instead of the binary file for the editor
(different menu selection in setedit.com) you will see  that
both  DELETE  LINE  and  REVERSE SCROLL are "ESC-E", whereas
REVERSE SCROLL should be "ESC-E  CNTL-K".   This  took  some
time  to track down, but with the text file I could edit the
changes and actually add the insert character features  (and
so forth) for my terminal that are not in the setup file.

     Now the fun begins.  I can now  enter  the  editor  and
edit  text  files,  and view the nice help files.  These are
really kind of cute, since the help files show the functions
broken  down  by  category  and  the keys they are bound to.
Since I have had enough of Wordstar (the original key  bind-
ings  for  the  MIX  editor)  I immediately began to write a
setup file for  EMACS-like  key  bindings.   This  was  much
easier  to do than I expected.  I started around 8:00 PM and
was finished by 11:00 PM, plus the two hours it took to  get
the  terminal  configuration correct.  I can safely say that
in one evening I got the editor set up the way I wanted it.

     I cannot say that I am entirely pleased with  the  pro-
duct  however.   There  are two problems with the MIX editor
that I have encountered over the past month.  The  first  is
how  the editor handles tabs.  The use of tabs is toggled by
the command "BC" or "blank compression." Tabs  are  expanded
when  the  editor  comes up, and using the command "BC" will
then compress the blanks into tabs.  The problem is that  if
you  happen  to have a single space exactly in a tab column,
the editor will replace the single  space  with  a  tab.   I
found  out the hard way by editing a section of my thesis at
home and then downloading it to school for typesetting.   In
a  3  to 4 page section this happend 168 times.  The problem
with leaving blank compression off is that all the tabs  are
replaced  by  spaces  which is ok for my thesis, but not for
the source to Modem 700.  I was editing Modem 700  which  is
152  K  with  tabs  and  with blank compression off, I found
after exiting the editor that the  source  was  now  220  K.
With  384 K disks, I could no longer edit the dumb thing and
keep a backup on one disk.  This is what started  the  whole
mess  and  prompted me to use blank compression on mode, but
as you can see that does not do the trick.  I really do  not
believe  that  a  single  space  in  a tab columns should be
replaced by a tab character.  This seems to be a bug in  the
editor.

     The second problem is related to the "JL" or join  line
command.   I  found  that  if two windows are open, and if a
line is being deleted in the top window, the line of "+++++"
that  separates  the  two  windows  is deleted and cannot be
replaced.  This is more of an annoyance than anything, since
with  the separator line gone it is hard to tell if there is
one window or two.  The other complaint with  "JL"  is  that
when  the  text from below is moved up, there is still white
space between the text. It is as if the newline  is  replace
by  a  space,  and then the screen is redrawn, but I cant be
sure.

     This has been long enough, and I hope my  comments  are
of some value to someone.  My impressions of the MIX editor?
I consider the problem with tabs to be  quite  serious,  not
just an annoyance.  Once the tab problem and the other minor
things are fixed, I would have to rate  this  editor  as  an
excellent value.  The multiple window and macro capabilities
have proved to be extremely useful.  I had no trouble  writ-
ing  macros  and  the new key bindings to make MIX look like
EMACS.  That is more than I can say for  EMACS.   If  anyone
has  read  this  far, and would like my EMACS-like MIX setup
file, just send mail.

- Stanley Dunn
Univ. of Md. Dept. of Computer Science
Univ. of Md. Computer Vision Lab
seismo!umcp-cs!smd (preferred while cvl is being moved)
seismo!umcp-cs!cvl!smd














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Re: MIX editor and C [message #223833 is a reply to message #223792] Fri, 30 August 1985 12:17 Go to previous message
Ghenis.pasa is currently offline  Ghenis.pasa
Messages: 25
Registered: November 1985
Karma: 0
Junior Member
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.1132
Posted: Fri Aug 30 12:17:13 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 1-Sep-85 12:34:23 EDT
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Lines: 12





I called to order both the MIX editor and C compiler, and was told that
the compiler wouldn't be ready for shipping until Sept 1st. Another case
of premature advertising... 

I placed my order anyways (COD, I've heard too many horror stories)
because of the positive reviews of the editor on net.micro. Hopefully I
will receive them soon (next week?) and then I'll post my impressions on
the C compiler.
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