[Info-vax] Editors, was: Re: VT keyboard replacement

[alanfe...@gmail.com]

On Thursday, November 18, 2021 at 1:39:07 PM UTC-5, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2021-11-17, alanfe... at gmail.com <alanfe... at gmail.com> wrote: 
> > 
> > Can your favorite editor let you define keys without compiling a huge 
> > section file? Can you easily look up what any given key combo does? Esp. 
> > when done by learn mode? Just asking. 
> >
> I have already answered your first question (answer is yes) and posted 
> EVE examples for you to try. 

I didn't see any such post. Also my other problem with compiling things in EVE is that I once got "Compilation aborted on line 1." Line 1!!! How am I supposed to debug something with a msg. like that? (My changed line of code was well past line 1.)

AGAIN: Every time I try EVE there's a problem. At remote labs it didn't work _at all_ without a lot of fuss playing with terminal settings and whatnot. With EDT I don't have such problems. I don't have to wait half a minute to open a huge file just to change the first few lines like I do with EVE. EDT works fine for me. If you need a more powerful editor, fine! I'm not stopping you. I don't need multiple buffers on the screen at the same time in the same session. I don't need all that scripting. I just want to edit some simple DCL. OK? I'm a lowly ex-physicist who wrote a lot of stuff in FORTRAN. I've inspected Pascal code, started learning c, and dabbled a little in existing perl scripts. That's it! I'm not a professional coder! For those who are, use a more powerful editor. I'm okay with that!!!

One time both EDT and EVE failed me! I needed lines longer than 255 chars, but also SET NO TRUNCATE. Neither editor has both. So I had to struggle to get the task done. 

The only times I need EVE is for overstrike mode and box editing. The rest of the time I like EDT, esp. now that it is not limited to 22 lines. (Actually, there may be other rare times, like wildcard searches maybe, but it's been a long, long time!)

> Someone else has already answered your second question. I don't know if 
> that includes learn sequences, but I have _never_ needed to see the learn 
> sequence that I have just entered as I don't care about it after the end 
> of the current session. 

I didn't see that post either. And I _have_ needed to see saved learn sequences, and it appears you cannot. 
Sorry I missed those posts. I'll take another look. (I'm using Google groups, not the best choice, but it's free.)

> BTW, EVE isn't my favourite editor. It's just that its a lot more powerful 
> and productive to use on VMS than trying to use EDT. Emacs is an even more 
> powerful editor however.
> Simon. 

emacs is a finger killer. Most things cannot be done without awkward double double-key commands with Ctrl and Meta. And what the hell is Meta anyway? I'm guessing Esc. 

Look. For the umpteenth time, I admit other editors are more powerful. And for the umpteenth time I said that for me it's like using a blow torch to light a candle. That powerful stuff just gets in my way and I'd have to learn it. I haven't done anything in VMS (OpenVMS for future deep-dive searches) for years and only want to update and fix bugs in my TO.COM DCL command procedure, as the current one on the main VSI Freeware page is out of date and the download link is broken. And maybe add a couple of other very small, but useful ones. 

I asked in another thread for release notes for the EDT update. I answered some questions about EDT. I did not intend to start an editor war. I just wanted to see the release notes in case I'm missing something more. Oh, the original goal was to find the release notes for the SET DEFAULT fix. Turns out I found the release notes that _mentions_ the problem, and it also gives an example of how SHOW DEFAULT is broken, which still is. 

I'm sorry I missed those posts. I'll look again.

> 
> -- 
> Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP 
> Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.

Distant things may be smaller than they appear. I had this experience once driving from the College Park, MD, area to Dulles airport. There was a polyhedral mushroom-shaped building in the distance. It looked huge! When you finally reach it it looks like maybe 1/3 or 1/2 of what you expected to see.

Also, distant things that fill a window appear larger than when you move closer to the window.

Then there's the moon effect!

AEF