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

[Ken Hornstein]

> > 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.

So ... I guess programs would look at the terminal and if your speed was
9600 baud or greater, you'd use VISUAL, and if it was slower you'd use
EDITOR?  I could believe that (although from memory I don't recall vi
being that bad at 2400 baud, but it was a while ago!).

--Ken