Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!apple!usc!bloom-beacon!LCS.MIT.EDU!MAP
From: MAP@LCS.MIT.EDU (Michael A. Patton)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: echoing in terminal windows
Message-ID: <8907172211.AA29340@gaak.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Date: 17 Jul 89 22:11:53 GMT
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 17

I once worked with a system that had the properties you mention.  It
was VERY nice for standard simple type-in style interactions.  It
worked both on fancy (IMLAC) displays and on simple glass ttys.  This
was back in 1973!  You do need to have special hooks, as you mention,
and a much more elaborate interface for screen oriented applications.

It is my impression, however, that the whole area of interaction is
moving away from the style that benefits from such an interface.  If
anybody is interested in doing it anyway, I would be glad to try and
describe how the 1973 system worked, both from the users stand point
and the internals.  There were several interesting bits, including an
I-Beam like cursor that seperated (into a "]" and a "[") when there
was unread type-ahead.  The rubout case that you describe was actully
handled by virtue of the fact that the terminals had keys for "Rubout"
and "Delete" which were conventionalized to the two different
interpretations and mapped to the same thing in the case where the
input wasn't typed ahead.