Xref: utzoo comp.os.misc:364 comp.unix.wizards:5834
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!gatech!emory!arnold
From: arnold@emory.uucp (Arnold D. Robbins {EUCC})
Newsgroups: comp.os.misc,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Command interfaces
Message-ID: <2424@emory.uucp>
Date: 21 Dec 87 17:41:31 GMT
References: <1257@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <6840002@hpcllmv.HP.COM> <9555@mimsy.UUCP> <798@rocky.STANFORD.EDU> <432@cresswell.quintus.UUCP> <3161@psuvax1.psu.edu> <5565@oberon.USC.EDU> <142@piring.cwi.nl> <5754@oberon.USC.EDU>
Reply-To: arnold@emory.UUCP (Arnold D. Robbins {EUCC})
Organization: Emory University
Lines: 27

In article <5754@oberon.USC.EDU> blarson@skat.usc.edu (Bob Larson) writes:
>>'History mechanism' is something primos has never heard about).
>
>There are at least two command line editors for primos 19.4 and later
>on the market, two I know of being passed around, and one included
>with primos 21.0 that works with prior version of primos.  (The best
>of the lot in my opinion - I like emacs.)  The only os I know of that
>has such a wide variety is unix -- but with unix you have to replace
>your whole shell to switch command line editors.

Interestling enough, this is not necessarily so. In the 8th Edition shell,
the shell itself has no builtin history mechanism. Instead, if HISTORY is
a defined parameter (shell variable), the shell appends the text of each
command to the file indicated by $HISTORY. There is a separate command
(named '=' and '==') that does command history editing and then submits
the new command for execution.

By extension, anyone could write their own history editor that worked the
same way, without building it into the shell.

After considerable thought, this approach, in my opinion, seems both
simple and elegant. Too bad we mere mortals can't get v8 or v9.
-- 
Arnold Robbins
ARPA, CSNET:	arnold@emory.ARPA	BITNET: arnold@emory
UUCP: { decvax, gatech, }!emory!arnold	DOMAIN: arnold@emory.edu (soon)
	``csh: just say NO!''