I find it amusing that the the Unix purists are defending a 1950's type line editor (with input and command mod) designed for a teletype keyboard and paper roll output then converted to the glass teletype equivalent. The keyboards on teletypes were notoriously slow, heavy to the touch, and the line speeds were so slow that they were desparate to find any method to speed up the transmission (ctl/alt modifier keys), no matter how awkward!
That this has been enshrined on Linux is certainly short sighted. The only reason I use vi is that 1) it is much the same on each *NIX system, 2) and it is reasonably compatible with the ex editor and sed for HMC and 3270 terminals, so I don't have to relearn an editor everytime I change terminal type. Its just as amusing that the 1970's technology of the 80 column card, transfered on the 3270 glass tube was enshrined on MVS as ispf and VM as xedit. Neither of them work very well for long, variable length "records" such as a long /etc/parmfile line. And its beyond annoying when xedit translates my parmfile to ALL UPPER CASE by default. The "case m i" command is NOT intuitive. At least ispf prereads the data and sets the mode to something reasonable, but then its pretty bad at dealing with something past 80 bytes. Vi has sense enough to wrap the lines. What really is needed is a simple editor that is a more intuitive and universal, rather than arguing whether the 3270 implementations are better or worse than the teletype implementations. Maybe someone could come up with a simple Java editor that will work the same on HMC, 3270, and teletype terminals! Its an editor guys - we shouldn't have to read a 3 inch manual to make it work! Regards, Jim Linux S/390-zSeries Support, SEEL, IBM Silicon Valley Labs t/l 543-4021, 408-463-4021, [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** Grace Happens ***
