Re: [nmh-workers] Unnecessary dependency on vi???

[Paul Fox]

ken wrote:
 > So since you were there ... I never did understand the point (or the
 > distinction) between VISUAL and EDITOR.  More specifically, I never
 > understood when you were supposed to use one versus the other.

i can answer that one.

in the bad old days, if you were working on a slow dialup (300 or
1200 baud), or, actually, a printing terminal at any speed, you'd
probably want to invoke ed or ex.  if you were working on a
"high-speed" 9600 baud terminal, you'd likely want vi or emacs etc. 
so a program like mail would offer two escapes (~e vs.  ~v) to let yo
invoke either.

paul
=----------------------
paul fox, address@hidden (arlington, ma, where it's 33.8 degrees)