where to do line editing?

[Marc Ries]

In article <143 at loquat.cis.ohio-state.edu> karl at loquat.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) writes:
[al at gtx.com writes:
[   [line editing as in ksh is mighty neat, but might be better done
[    in the kernel, notwithstanding arguments against user interfaces
[    being implemented there.  Alternate suggestion is to create a
[    library such as curses, but has the drawback of requiring explicit
[    programming to put it to use.]
[
[I did it once.  I created a thing called liblinedit.a, which consisted
[of a few files which made up my own incarnation of a line editor.
[This was the editor which I attached to csh lo these many years ago.
[It was written very generally so as to be able to attach it to
[anything that wanted to do line-at-a-time input.  Due to my inability
[to distribute the thing, it never got much exposure outside local
[systems where I supported my csh.  Paul Placeway (cf. tcsh) has
[occasionally made noises about turning the tcsh editor into a linkable
[library, but I don't think he's ever actually done it.
[
[It's very doable, not particularly tough, really no big deal once
[you've taken care of a few details.  Just make sure that it has a
[single entry point that looks, feels, and smells like an ordinary
[read() call except that it does whizbang things inside.  I started
[from Ken Greer's tenex stuff originally distributed in October 1984.
[It occurs to me that ksh's editing library may even include a way to
[build a libedit.a suitable for such usage.
[
[--Karl
  
   There is a libedit.a make directive in the  KSH  sources,  and
   the  documentation  alludes  to  this ability.  However, in my
   case, I needed the ability to preload  the  edit-line  with  a
   prompt  and/or  default  "to-be-edited" data.  I had to modify
   the actual sources to achieve a  stand  alone  one-line-editor
   interface (ie, set the defaults up and  do  a  read()  to  the
   libedit.a  read()  routine).  The ability to offer vi or emacs
   modes is icing on the cake.

   I made the principals (David Korn and P.D.  Sullivan) aware of
   the  changes,  and was told they would be incorporated into an
   upcoming release (thanks, guys).


-- 
		Marc A. ries at trwrb.TRW.COM

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