Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!hellgate.utah.edu!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!crash!simpact!jeh
From: jeh@simpact.com
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: Suggested user interface enhancements
Message-ID: <741.25729674@simpact.com>
Date: 28 Nov 89 21:30:12 GMT
References: <733.2567e8ad@simpact.com> <1403@acad.cut.oz>
Organization: Simpact Associates, San Diego CA
Lines: 28

In article <1403@acad.cut.oz>, CROBW@acad.cut.oz 
 (Rob Wright, VMS Systems Group) writes:
> How often have you had a complex command on the screen with the character in
> column, say, 3, incorrect? And, line edit is off! 

Oddly -- well, it's probably only odd to me because I've never looked closely
at the command line recall stuff -- previous lines are still stored for recall,
even if line editing is off!  So, after entering the bad command, you can 
still do SET LINE_EDIT (or whatever your favorite flavor of the command is),
recall the bad line, and edit it.  The only problem is if the bad line is just 
too awful to let execute (say, a DELETE command), in which case you can usually
corrupt it by adding a few extr parameters, or something.  (With line editing
on, or at DCL, I just hit backspace and put a ! in front of it, turning it into
a comment, then it return, recall it, and edit it.)

> In this all too common
> situation the desired feature is to have the line edit flip-flop changed by one
> out-of-band control character. 

This would probably require an SMG hack.  In any case I see no reason why
line editing shouldn't be on by default.  

	--- Jamie Hanrahan, Simpact Associates, San Diego CA
Chair, VMSnet [DECUS uucp] and Internals Working Groups, DECUS VAX Systems SIG 
--------------------------------------+----------------------------------------
Internet:  jeh@simpact.com,	      |	"Marty, we're in a DeLorean, he's in a
 or if that fails, jeh@crash.cts.com  |	'46 Ford!  He'd rip through us like we
Uucp:  ...{crash,scubed}!simpact!jeh  |	were tinfoil!" -- Dr. E. Brown (BTTF 2)