Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site hadron.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!rlgvax!prcrs!hadron!jsdy From: jsdy@hadron.UUCP (Joseph S. D. Yao) Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: Rand Editor Message-ID: <124@hadron.UUCP> Date: Sat, 2-Mar-85 02:21:22 EST Article-I.D.: hadron.124 Posted: Sat Mar 2 02:21:22 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 5-Mar-85 02:10:57 EST References: <8035@brl-tgr.ARPA> <111@gitpyr.UUCP> Organization: Hadron, Inc., Fairfax, VA Lines: 39 > Posted from cottrell@nbs-vms.ARPA > > VI is much more capable than RE. The keys all have mnemonic names, > > d for delete, w for word, i for insert, etc. I don't know how the > > keystrokes for RE were developed. RE is simple to learn tho. > > I dunno about the Rand Editor, but vi is just about the most terminal > independent screen editor I've ever used. ... Dave, if you're reading this, here's your religious issue again. Ever since somebody [;-)] introduced Dave Yost to Mark Horton at a USENIX meeting, the Rand Editor has been terminal-independent via the termcap file. The keystrokes were developed for the Ann Arbor K4080 terminal with S1901 Emulation Option -- tho nobody has ever been able to tell me what S1901 was. It was multi-window back when the Mac was just an Apple in somebody's I. It is great! for multiple- text applications (among other things, i used to use it as a "visual diff" -- can't do that in vi!) and for general dumb sit-and-enter-text type of applications. It allows all manner of filters to be run from it and is therefore extensible just as 'vi' is. Our secretaries at SAI (when I was at SAI) in Rosslyn (when...) in 1976-1980 were intro- duced to Re and Nroff (subset/macro pkg), and soon absolutely loved the whole system! Especially the trekkie who discovered startrek... Even the Management was occasionally found typing at the terminals! We had the AA-K4080 terminals, where you just hit the appropriate key to do anything you wanted. Entry was trivial, and all manner of editing tasks (cut&paste, retrieve your 2-hour-ago change) were easy. That was ~version 3? Today they are up to version 24+? I have been using vi for quite a while because (a) it is everywhere, and (b) I am writing C programs, and 'vi' has some nice features for C. I may get back to 'e' (new 're') for text, and learn Emacs for C. On this particular religious issue I am easy (I don't even use the Bourne- again Shell). But I do steadfastly maintain: Emacs and the Rand Editor are true screen editors. Vi and Vteco are, respectively, line and character editors playing screen editor. Try them and see. Joe Yao hadron!jsdy@seismo.{ARPA,UUCP}