Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!oodis01!uplherc!esunix!bpendlet From: bpendlet@esunix.UUCP (Bob Pendleton) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Input Line Editing Message-ID: <919@esunix.UUCP> Date: 15 Jul 88 17:38:49 GMT References: <6192@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> Organization: Evans & Sutherland, Salt Lake City, Utah Lines: 48 From article <6192@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>, by tytso@athena.mit.edu (Theodore Y. Ts'o): > One problem with putting the input line editor (ile) where it is is that > you don't always want to be able to step back through ALL the lines that > were typed to that tty. For example, if you started editing a file > using /bin/ed (or some other interactive program), and typed hundreds > of "n", "p", "i", "a", and "s/foo/bar/" commands, when you exited to > the shell, do you really want to step through those hundreds of /bin/ed > commands? The shell isn't going to do anything useful with them. Want > I want to do is step back to the last *shell* commands, not necesarilly > the last line I typed. If ed sets cbreak or raw mode then ile won't record any of the characters going either direction. On the other hand in some programs you might like to have a history and line editing capability but not have that history in your "global" history. So, just invoke "ed" as "ile ed" or even alias "ed" to "ile ed". Then while you are running ed you have a local history that goes away as soon as you exit ed. But, the input line editing stays consistent. I haven't done this yet, but it has been suggested that ile should save and restore its history buffer using a file whose name is derived from the name of the program that was run under ile. That would give you a program specific history the persists from invokation to invocation of a program. > Now, you might say that this is a "inconsistent user interface". But I > find that having the shell step through only shell commands is a lot > more friendlier to the user. I use a csh with a line editor hacked in, > and I've been very satisified with the result. This is the csh which > is in use at MIT Project Athena, and our users in general like it a lot. I can't force my users to use one shell. I don't have time to hack several shells. Especially since I don't think I have source for all of them. And I can't count on having shell source in the future. I can count on having the source to ile. We aren't all still in academia. > - Ted > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= > Theodore Ts'o mit-eddie!mit-athena!tytso > 3 Ames St., Cambridge, MA 02139 tytso@athena.mit.edu > If it's for real, it isn't! Bob P.-- Bob Pendleton @ Evans & Sutherland UUCP Address: {decvax,ucbvax,allegra}!decwrl!esunix!bpendlet Alternate: utah-cs!esunix!bpendlet I am solely responsible for what I say.