Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: showmode required for vi
Message-ID: <3764@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 27 Jul 90 17:42:46 GMT
References: <90204.152332QQ11@LIVERPOOL.AC.UK> <1990Jul26.001745.11301@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 7

>I noticed that the vi in new SunOS4.1 has the showmode facility.
>
>Now, can someone tell me why they chose the abbreviation 'smd' for it?

Because whoever originally added it to "vi" - probably at AT&T, and I'd
guess it was Mark Horton - did; Sun just snarfed the S5R3.1 "vi",
primarily in order to get its support for 8-bit character sets, for 4.1.