Emergency Editors (was Stabble Tag move)

[Bill Hacker]

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Matthew Dillon wrote:

>     I think having an emergency editor is reasonable, but it would only make
>     sense if it were a full screen editor (since 'ed' handles non-full-screen
>     editing).
> 
>     This is what I would recommend:
> 
> 	* editor hard-codes simple ANSI escape sequences for cursor positioning
> 	  and scrolling.

ACK.  ANSI now more universal than not...

>  No curses.

For damn sure...

> 
> 	* editor uses tty rows/columns information to determine rows and columns

ACK.  Agree rows.  Columns perhaps problematic. Display 'streamed' as-is,
terminal device wraps to fit the available screen - i.e. no inserting of any
'soft' newlines for 'pretty'.

(I use HP-200-LX in 130 column VT-100 mode - and magnifying eyeglasses!)

> 
> 	* simple insert, delete, split line, join line, bi-mode (insert mode,
> 	  overwrite mode), load, and save.

And block moves.  Dirt simple if a reasonable limit on buffer size.  At 
least
two full lines at a time, 16 probably max, 8 optimal on a limited screen 
size,
else one is at the mercy of scolling.  Dodgy on a high-latency link HKG-ZRH.

> 
>     Now, in my old commodore pet days I could write such an editor, in 6502
>     machine code, directly from the machine code monitor, in about 4 hours.  So
>     it should be a snap for one of you guys to do it, right ?

You had a *ROM monitor*?  I had a box full of favorite paper tapes - 
mylar, even
for the most-often used ones...!

> 
>     In anycase, if someone wants to write such a beast... simple stupid emergency
>     editor, I believe it would be a worthy addition to /bin.
> 
> 					-Matt
> 					Matthew Dillon 
> 					<dillon at xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

'ssee' it is, then ....... (or 'dee' - DragonFly Emergency Editor)  and 
using a
C 'lib' is cheatin'

- but cheating is pre-approved if it JF gets the job done ..  ;-)

IOW - really ought to just alter a few things on one or more
of the several existing small footprint BSDL'ed editors
and get on with more important work...

Bill