Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:09:56 -0400 From: "John L. Templer" <green_tiger@comcast.net> To: perryh@pluto.rain.com Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: The question of moving vi to /bin Message-ID: <4A441FE4.3070604@comcast.net> In-Reply-To: <4a432627.nNXzKFb0uYX/7NBi%perryh@pluto.rain.com> References: <4A430505.2020909@gmail.com> <4A430CDF.2010205@comcast.net> <4a432627.nNXzKFb0uYX/7NBi%perryh@pluto.rain.com>
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 perryh@pluto.rain.com wrote: >> ed is an interactive program, and it has always been considered as >> such, at least since BSD 4.2. Way back then there were three main >> editors, ex, vi, and ed. > > ed goes back at least as far as the Bell Labs 6th Edition (PDP-11), > where it was the only editor in the distribution. ex and vi (and > termcap, without which there would be no vi) were written later, at > UC Berkeley. > >> If you had a nice video terminal then you used vi. But if you >> were stuck using a hard copy terminal like a Decwriter, then you >> used ex. And ed was the simplified (dumbed down) editor for >> newbies. > > More like, ed was the "original" Unix editor; ex and vi presumably > were inspired, at least in part, by a desire to improve on ed's > limitations. I doubt I'm the only one who muttered about the bother > of horsing around with ed, back when there was nothing else. > Ah, I didn't know that. When I started using Unix (on a BSD 4.2 system) vi was the editor of choice. It wasn't until much later that I learned about the ATT side of Unix. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAkpEH+IACgkQjkAlo11skeOOrwCbBrOYlc7+bHDOgKvHiLedCQof w3AAniMByMDTGAIEbWzTd+oTNVgB6VoU =0dSg -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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