[Info-vax] SET DEFAULT iterative logical name translation

[alanfe...@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, October 26, 2021 at 6:31:27 PM UTC-4, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
> On Tuesday, October 26, 2021 at 11:19:27 PM UTC+13, alanfe... at gmail.com wrote: 
> > On Monday, October 25, 2021 at 10:48:26 PM UTC-4, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote: 
> >> On Monday, October 25, 2021 at 5:28:47 PM UTC+13, alanfe... at gmail.com wrote: 
> >>> When was EDT updated to allow more than 22 lines? IDK, but it's made me happy! 
> >> “EDT” and “happy” were never words I considered using in the same sentence ... 
> > I understand. Use the right tool for the job, I say. For me that is usually EDT.
> What drove me mad about EDT was its insistence on a “current direction” mode. Instead of having separate movement commands for going forward and backward by word, line etc, it had a single command for each, with separate “forward” and “backward” keys for setting the direction. 
> 
> But since I could never remember what was the last direction key I hit, I would always have to hit it again, so every movement command became *two* keystrokes instead of one.

Hmmm. Somehow this never bothered me much. I usually start with key 4 or 5 if I haven't touched the keypad in a short while. It's pretty quick, unless you're the hunt-and-peck type.

If you want to scroll up or down several pages, you only need to hit 4 or 5 once, then just repeat the 8 key until you find what you want. 

But I fully understand why some _are_ bothered by it. Hey, typing directory brackets used to annoy me. And at least one other, who liked my TO.COM (an early rather primitive version) for that reason alone! Anyway, after a few years of typing long paths in Unix commands, I'm not bothered by it nearly as much. I actually tried to write a cd program in Unix, but Unix thwarted me at every turn. First, it would spawn a process to run it and change the directory therein, exit, and I'm still in the same directory! I was told a trick to take care of that, when something else screwed me over. So after a short while I punted and just typed out the long bloody paths. Arghh. 

> > One thing I really like about EDT is the key definitions. You can see them and change
> > them without needing to recompile and make a new huge TPU section file ... 

> Emacs does all that, and more. It also has the advantage of being built on LISP, which is still one of the most advanced programming languages around.

So Emacs lets you put in key definitions in a readable file and you don't need to compile it into a huge section file and thereafter not be able to list your commands? If it does, that's cool!

I've used emacs on occasion. A lot of two-keys-at-the-same-time commands. And often two of _them_ in a row. And the 4,5 bit bothers you on EDT? Here's an emacs key definition with three in a row!: C-x 4 C-o

OTOH, I _like_ EDT's command mode. You see the asterisk at the bottom or you don't. You can search for a term and just see the lines that have that term, like with the SEARCH command, instead of skipping around the file like you have to on PCs and Macs. Well, Excel does have Find All, except the Mac version doesn't! Arghh.

And another problem I always had with emacs: Once you start a session for the first time in a long time, you can't figure out how to exit. Well, I'd always forget it after a while and have to look it up. You'd think it would be a single key, like Ctrl-X or something, but NOOOOOOO. It's C-x C-c according to https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/refcards/pdf/refcard.pdf Who could remember that after several months of not using emacs? What does the c stand for anyway?

Hey, if emacs works for you, that's great. Go for it.

AEF