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

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Bakul,

> > > > mail(1) had the `~e' escape and then added a `~v' one
> > 
> > But peering at doc/Mail/mail3.nr in BSD-1-3-gfc8c50acc08, so just
> > after BSD 1 was cut, I see it documents all the tilde escapes and
> > has `~e' but no `~v'.
> > https://github.com/dspinellis/unix-history-repo/blob/fc8c50acc0870bf28753d3508770428682e915bb/doc/Mail/mail3.nr
>
> <nitpick>
> This is a doc. bug!

Yes, and very handy it is too since it shows that `~e' existed, was
documented, and then `~v' added without updating *all* the
documentation.

> ~v is mentioned in mail7.nr in the same fc8c50acc0 "commit". This has
> April 19, 1979 date.  The same as the 2bsd date on TUHS unix-archives.
> See my previous message. ~v was already in!

Yes, I've not suggested `~v' wasn't in BSD 2;  it clearly was.  BSD 1's
mtimes finish 1978-02-01 09:53:23 -0800 and then the first we see of
what becomes BSD 2 is 1979-04-18 21:00:16a -0800, with these mtimes
becoming the commit times in git.  In those couple of months `~e' and
`~v' get added.  As Steffen said, there was no release of Mail with one
and not the other.

As for BSD 2 being 1979-04-19, that would seem to miss out lots of the
commits in that git repository so one of them, at least, seems wrong.
:-)

    git log --pretty='%h  %ai  %s' Research-V5..BSD-2

> > I also noticed that Mail's string option was at one point `EDITOR'
> > for one and `VISEDITOR' for the other;  also suggestive that one
> > came first rather than both together.
>
> This is in mail7.nr but looking at the sources, it is 'VISUAL' so I
> suspect this is another doc. bug (both bugs are also in
> doc/Mail/mail{3,7}.nr in the 2bsd dist. on TUHS).

Yes, another documentation bug, another thing leaving a trail of how it
changed over time.  I agree it's what became VISUAL, but it not being
that from the start indicates to me that EDITOR already existed, thus
`~e', when VISEDITOR was added.  :-)

-- 
Cheers, Ralph.
https://plus.google.com/+RalphCorderoy