vi, mac, unix

[kevin eric saunders]

In article <2866 at sdcc6.ucsd.EDU> ir450 at sdcc6.UUCP () writes:
>
>I have NEVER had ANY experience with vi removing text and doing the
>wierd things that the previous posters have stated, even when I was a
>beginner with vi. 

Methinks the folks complaining probably had a mismatch between their 
TERM setting and their terminal, or a corrupted termcap entry.  This 
can result in some *very* confusing screen displays.  The file, of 
course, is just fine; too bad you can't see what you're entering.

The sad choice between aztec Z (30% of vi, but 300 cps is *slow*)
and the mouse-based editors (faster display, but like plowing a field
with a hoe) is one I resolve by using either Z or using my own multi-window
editor, dumb virtue, soon to be shareware.  (Unfortunately this program
uses TE and is limited to 32K, bleah.  Had I but known how much trouble
TE would be when I started out, I might have tried writing my own TE.)

As for Mac/UNIX:  simplifying UNIX itself == bowdlerization.  I think
the graphics/human interface box should be functionally if not
physically separate from your UNIX CPU/disk server; communications
interfaces are getting fast enough to make this work real nice.  Thus,
you can write some nice visual interface code to hide the UNIX text
world commands without modifying UNIX itself; for those who want
unadorned (? overadorned ?) UNIX, it's lying in wait underneath.

How regular was my expression,
kevin

-- 
kevin eric saunders

ARPA: kevin at lasspvax   or   kevin%lasspvax.tn.gvax.edu at cu-arpa
UUCP: {ihnp4, allegra,...}!gvax!lasspvax!kevin