From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!C70:editor-people Newsgroups: fa.editor-p Title: Editor Flame Article-I.D.: ucb.1197 Posted: Thu May 27 05:42:14 1982 Received: Sat May 29 09:52:06 1982 >From C70:daemon Thu May 27 02:54:46 1982 *from: BOB (Bob Frankston) Local: editor-people at mit-ai Original-date: 23 MAY 1982 18:16:56 Remailed-date: 27 May 1982 0004-PDT Remailed-from: J.Q. JohnsonRemailed-to: Editor People: ; Seeing the latest cruft coming by, I thought I should add a few (brief?) comments: 1. I can't find the arrows on most keyboards with my fingers, but I can find keys with mnemonic associations on the home keys (Next/Previous, Backwards/Forwards). I switch keybroads alot -- typically using on with each hand. 2. For the EMACS I implemented on Prime, I have both 2d mode and 1d mode. Typically I run in 1d mode, but edit tables using 2d mode in conjunction with replace mode. 3. I have only limited sympathy for trying to offload echoing to the terminal since computers are getting quite cheap. Unfortunately, packet charges on networks are such that it is probably cheaper to dialup cross country than use a packet net for Emacs, Thus local echoing has a value. Multics echo negotiation appears to be a reasonable attempt at this. The echoing is done by a separate communications processor which can be located near the terminal and is given a simple rule such as echo until you see "n" characters or see a nongraphic. It should be possible to specify a set of tables or choose one so that people can rebind keys without being stuck with the wired in bindings. If one rebinds alot of keys (to implement replace mode for example) one might not be able to use a general purpose approach, though the editor should know about the common ones to optimize them. The basic rinicple is taht these optimization should help in common cases but should not restrict what can be done if the user is willing to accept less efficiency. Ideally the degradation should be gradual so that rebinding the "A" key does not prevent the use of any local echoing.