Can something like Script be done in System V?

[Guy Harris]

> What about all the "novice" and not so novice users who dont want to be
> bothered learning 14 different editors for different purposes.  They learn
> the one they use primarily (VI) well and want to be able to use it for
> their occasional repetative editing scripts.

Well, the article mentioned having a screen editor which used a line editor
underneath it; where are the 12 other editors you're referring to?

And do you know anybody who uses "vi" (not "ex", remember, we're talking
about screen editors) to do their scripts?  If it had a "learn" mode, maybe,
just maybe...

> No qualities have to be sacrificed if the program is well thought out
> in advance and properly implemented.

Do you have any examples to offer?  What kind of repetitive operations does
this "well thought out and properly implemented" editor provide?  How do you
write scripts - is there a "learn mode" in which it remembers keystrokes, or
is there a "programming language" that you write these scripts in, or do you
just stuff the bytes that would normally be generated by your terminal when
you typed the keystrokes of the script into a file?  (If the latter, I fear
that editing and debugging scripts will be a *real* bear...)

And what if your editor accepts commands from something other than the
typewriter portion of the keyboard?  Which codes for the cursor keys does it
use?  How can you indicate mouse input in a file?  (No, entering the byte
codes that your mouse software presents to the program, assuming that your
OS prsents mouse actions in the standard input stream as byte codes, doesn't
cut it - especially for the novice user.)

	Guy Harris