[Info-vax] VMS Features I Wish Linux Had

[Simon Clubley]

On 2016-06-14, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
> On 2016-06-14 15:44, Bob Koehler wrote:
>> In article <njoior$lv7$4 at Iltempo.Update.UU.SE>, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> writes:
>>>
>>> I want that vi or emacs capability always, no matter what program or
>>> context I am in, and not just at the CLI or shell. Which is the reason I
>>> think it belongs in the driver. This functionality, in my mind, is not
>>> tied to a specific application or environment. It's a functionality that
>>> I want basically all the time, everywhere. Based on that, it's not hard
>>> to see where it should go.
>>
>>    In the driver basically means at elevated IPL.  I don't want someone
>>    running emacs at elevated IPL on my systems.  That's why we need both
>>    the in-the-driver limited capabilities and the in-the-program
>>    capabilities.  And DCL should take more adantage of the latter.
>
> Noone have suggested running Emacs in the driver. Jeez...
>

The best solution appears to be to keep the editing of the current line
in the terminal driver (which would allow repainting of the line if
there's any output while the user is typing) and to keep management of
the command history within the application itself.

I wouldn't want to see large chunks of command history kept in non-paged
memory in the kernel; I don't think that's where it belongs. OTOH having
an OS which implements basic line editing services means you don't have
to implement that in every application.

Of course, that argument would be more convincing if the terminal driver
of the OS in question allowed editing of lines which wrapped multiple
physical lines. :-)

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
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