[Info-vax] x86 Update 4/22/19

[Michael Moroney]

John Santos <john at egh.com> writes:

>In article <qa7epa$ihg$1 at dont-email.me>, davef at tsoft-
>inc.com says...
>> 
>> On 4/29/2019 12:52 PM, Michael Moroney wrote:
>> 
>> > Not the first time I went against the grain with editors. In college, the
>> > engineering and CS departments pushed an editor developed locally by a professor
>> > there. All classes which had terminal access (we still used punched cards) taught
>> > the local editor in the class. Someone else got a hold of another editor, and I
>> > prefered it. I even got the source code and improved it somewhat. (these were all
>> > line mode editors, primitive even compared to EDT. The editor that came with the
>> > operating system (CDC NOS) was absolutely horrible, nobody used it)
>> >
>> 
>> As with many things, you'll always hear from the "neys" much more than 
>> from the "yeas".
>> 
>> I still use EDT.  Does it have some warts?  Sure enough.  But it does 
>> the job, and, I'm used to it.
>> 
>> I too have worked on editors, back in the day the company I was with 
>> wrote a line editor, on RSTS, in Basic+.  Simple but effective, for it's 
>> day.  Also had a print queue and some other tools.
>> 
>> The 255 char line limit can be an issue, but not for programming.  I 
>> never edited a file with near to 65K lines.
>> 
>> Just thought you could hear another "yea" ...

>Hmmm.  My editor for a CDC was an 029 card punch...

I, too, often used that editor for many a program. I was there when the system
started to transition from punched cards to regular terminals. In the beginning
there were a few DECwriters connected to the CDC over 300 baud dialup lines
(if you could get through. If not, the alternarive number was 110 baud dialup!)

Yes, whippersnappers, it really was uphill both ways back in my day.