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From: reintom@rocky2.UUCP (Tom Reingold)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: DOS line editing
Message-ID: <321@rocky2.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 19-Jan-87 13:04:04 EST
Article-I.D.: rocky2.321
Posted: Mon Jan 19 13:04:04 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Jan-87 19:39:29 EST
References: <307@cognos.UUCP>
Organization: Rockefeller Univ.,N.Y.C 10021
Lines: 44
Keywords: DOS, Line editing

[]
In article <307@cognos.UUCP>, brianc@cognos.UUCP (Brian Campbell) writes:
> 
>      In almost every version I used up to and including 3.1, there has
> been a Ctrl-U and Ctrl-W keystroke which is recognized.  [For those of
> you who didn't know of or didn't have these features, Ctrl-U erases the
> entire line (similar to ESC, but on the same line) and Ctrl-W erases
> backward to the last non-alphanumeric character]. 
> 
>      The one day I was on a friend's machine running DOS 3.1 and found
> that his copy did not support either function.  I did some quick
> investigating and found that two short jumps in IBMDOS had been NOP'd
> out.  I replaced them with the appropriate instructions and everything
> worked as it used to [as I was used to]. 
> 
>      My question is why was this feature left out in some versions of
> DOS (or, why was it included in mine?) I've since looked a little more
> closely at the matter and found that the split is just about half and
> half between haves and have-nots.  Any reasons? Ideas?
> 
I formatted our hard disk at work and noticed the same thing as you.  It is
not the version of DOS that is in question.  It is really a bug in the
format program because it happens only on some hard disks.  I was using
the original IBM floppy disk that had no write-enable notch.  There were
two differences between the system files on the floppy and the hard disk.
I patched the one on the hard disk to be the same as on the floppy and
the editing keys returned.

These editing features were not documented and have been removed from DOS
3.2  It seemed like a shame to me but I recently got a copy of CED, a
freeware command editor.  Having it is far better than having Ctrl-U and
Ctrl-W.  It gives command history and much more.  I suggest you get a copy.
It's really good.  You won't miss the editing keys.

-Tom
--
This paragraph is necessary because my postnews program does not permit me
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-- 
Tom Reingold;  The Rockefeller University; 1230 York Av; NY 10021
PHONE: (212) 570-7709 [office]; (212) 304-2504 [home]
ARPANET: reintom@rockefeller.arpa BITNET: REINTOM@ROCKVAX
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