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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!denelcor!lmc
From: lmc@denelcor.UUCP (Lyle McElhaney)
Newsgroups: net.dcom
Subject: Xon/Xoff and editors
Message-ID: <200@denelcor.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 8-Nov-83 18:48:40 EST
Article-I.D.: denelcor.200
Posted: Tue Nov  8 18:48:40 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 10-Nov-83 20:09:46 EST
Organization: Denelcor, Aurora, CO
Lines: 18

One of the really nice features of screen editors is the "function-key"
concept, in which a single keystroke can cause an action to take place, be
it moving the cursor or justifying a paragraph. This is what screen editing
is all about. But what does this require?

In order to get every single character typed *as it is typed*, the editor
must place the terminal in raw mode (as opposed to cooked - forget cbreak
for now), because cooked mode buffers incoming characters into lines.
However the very nature of raw mode is to pass through *all* characters
to the editor, even XON and XOFF.

That is why XON/XOFF flow control is suspended by EMACS (and the Rand editor
and vi). All these editors have ways to tailor your terminal to their
language - and all require the specification of fill characters if required
by the terminal.

					Lyle McElhaney
					...(hao,nbires,brl-bmd)!denelcor!lmc