Mail Archives: opendos/1997/02/27/20:43:55
On Thu, 27 Feb 1997, Takashi Toyooka wrote:
> Must... resist... replying... I can't do it!
The force is more powerfull....
> Forgive me, something deep down in my psyche is driving me to plug my
> favourite editor. I'm taking this off the mailing list, because we're
> straying from the topic of OpenDOS.
Not really, when you think about it, DOS has always included an editor,
kludgy, but usable. And people have always preferred some other type of
editor over it. Though there's few tricks you can do with edlin which are
simply amazing if you stopped to think about it. It 'supports' I/O
redirection. What good is that? Well several years ago, when I
transferred my repitoire of basic programs from my Coco to the IBM, I had
to do some conversion for them to work. There was several hundred
programs I had to tinker with, didn't like that idea at all. Then, as I
was learning the 'ins and outs' of DOS, I 'discovered' redirection! The
idea stepped out of the blue, all the conversions were basically a form of
syntax corrections, ie use 'OPEN filename FOR INPUT AS 1' instead of
'OPEN #1,1,filename' (Coco used numbering for open type). I wrote a batch
file which systematically called EDLIN with the BAS program to convert,
with a list of 'search and replace's' to do. Took about two hours to
figure out all the replacements and about four hours to convert all the
programs. I/O redirection! YES!
> At 22:05 1997/02/26 -0600, you wrote:
> >My favorite editor is UED, [...] simple to use, [...] wonderful
>
> Vim does all this, except it's definitely not simple to use, and it
> doesn't have a load file menu. It has a command line-style interface
> for file management. Also, through its use of a swap file, *I think*
> it can actually load a file that's bigger than available memory
> (though I haven't put this to the acid test).
I don't think I could live without it, I use UED to piece together
programs by recycling functions from other programs to much.
> Aha! Vim can both load and save in either format! :-)
Hmmm, might install it just to be able to use that feature, load, edit as
needed, save in format needed.
> Vim is a great programmer's editor; it has lots of options for things
> like indentation and tabs, finding matching brackets, and jumping to
> the next C function.
Same, plus, as above mentioned, multiple separate workspaces, I can invoke
with the command line: "ued *.c" and work with several different pieces at
once. The largest file(s) I've loaded is about 460k, that's lotsasource!
> The major problem with Vim (and vi) is that it takes so bloody long to
> get used to it. I think it took me at least a week of *constant* use.
> Maybe two. Once you get used to it, though, it's surprising how
> natural it feels.
Like riding a bicycle, it took me about two weeks of work to learn Pico,
now I'm thinking about installing it to use as an offline mail editor.
> I'm not trying to convert you, or anything. (Okay, maybe I am ;-)
When my current 'job' clears, I might consider getting and installing.
> I'll go away now.
Wait! Don't go! We haven't covered everything yet!
> P.S. Is UED shareware? freeware? Do you know where I can get it?
Not sure, no minders or anything, came with the OnLine Bible as it's
default editor, after I figured out how to use it, (instructions are
practically on the bottom of the screen), I zipped up the rest of the
editors on my drive, down to the one that comes with SLMR.
BTW, OLB is free to use.
<! PrePared HTML! Just export as a HTML file and Click!>
A Christian Web Site! The Light
<a href="http://www.thelight.org/">.</a><br>
A neat place to visit. HotSpot
<a href="http://www.hspro.com/hotspot/">.</a><br>
Caldera, Inc. / Makers of OpenDOS
<a href="http://www.caldera.com/">.</a><br>
Caldera's OpenDOS page
<a href="http://www.caldera.com/dos/dos.htm">.</a><br>
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