From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!C70:editor-people
Newsgroups: fa.editor-p
Title: Re: Small Computer Editors/Insert mode
Article-I.D.: ucb.1468
Posted: Sat Jul  3 01:30:35 1982
Received: Sun Jul  4 00:40:35 1982

>From POURNE@MIT-MC Sat Jul  3 01:26:12 1982
Write has both INSERT character mode toggled by ^F, and
Open Whitespace toggled by ^G.  It will also go into "open
whitespace" each time you reach the end of a line of already
entered text--ie you are typing over old until you come to the
end of the line, at whch point a NEWLINE of whitespace is
generated.
	I find this very natural to use; and since for me the
primary quality of an editor is that it be utterly transparent,
I like this mode.  I have experimented with the Emacs "normally
in insert" mode, and I don't much care for it, expecially since
you have to rejustify the paragraph at the end of the edit ops.
	My college room mate is down for a visit, and his wife
is attending a school on how to use a VAX text editor.  I admit
I know little about a VAX.  However, the sales lady for the vAx
editor they are training Judy (my former reoom mate's wife) on
was over for a drink after classes today, and although she was
very defensive about their editor, she was unable to tell me any
feature that their editor has that my 8085 WRITE does not have;
except, of course, some of the VERY rapid disk ops to hard
diwsks; but then Iwasn't really showing her my 8085, I was
showing her WRITE on Ezekial, who is a 55K 2mH z-80 vintage
1975, and whose disk ops are VERY slow.
	I am still waiting to see a "big machine" editor that
does more for a creative writer than the editors available on
the 8085 can do.
	I suppose I may as well cease these comments; I don't
really care whether I win converts or not.  But I am amazed at
how much better many MICRO editors are than those available to
BIG machines.  (Walt Bilofsky tells me he has noticed the same
things.)