Input Line Editing

[Brandon S. Allbery]

As quoted from <9677 at eddie.MIT.EDU> by nessus at wonko.MIT.EDU (Doug Alan):
+---------------
| > From: henrik at blblbl.UUCP (Larry DeLuca)
| > While it's not going to help the ile people much, it still seems the
| > best place for a line editor of some sort is still the tty driver
| > (ioctl's can be used to set characters or toggle between modes).
| 
| No, you're wrong.
+---------------

Strong disagreement.  Given a STREAMS-based tty driver, one could push the
following modules:

	terminfo-like module (or termcap, depending on your prejudices)
	input line editor module
	output module -- replaces more, etc.

The TLM would be able to accept a term{cap,info} entry by grabbing an ioctl
(or whatever; my STREAMS guide is still on order) with the data in it.  The
user could push their own choice of input and output filters (vi/emacs, more/
less) or leave off either or both.  Then programs could do "smart" screen
I/O via ioctls or etc. (or even by canonical escape sequences, as with the
existing SysV facilities -- not that I've ever seen a SysV kernel with any
of the virtual terminals actually compiled in) processed by the TLM.

To the person who wants a "dumb X" -- isn't that what "window" is?

++Brandon
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery, uunet!marque!ncoast!allbery			DELPHI: ALLBERY
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