Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!munnari!basser!steve
From: steve@basser.oz (Stephen Russell)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: desperately seeking pd vi clone
Message-ID: <1196@basser.oz>
Date: 29 Feb 88 05:02:43 GMT
References: <4002@galbp.LBP.HARRIS.COM> <1335@polyslo.UUCP>
Reply-To: steve@basser.oz (Stephen Russell)
Organization: Dept of Comp Sci, Uni of Sydney, Australia
Lines: 53

In article <1335@polyslo.UUCP> mpatnode@polyslo.UUCP (Mike Patnode) writes:
>In article <4002@galbp.LBP.HARRIS.COM> bing@galbp.UUCP (Bing Bang) writes:
>>elle looks good but i am a true-to-the-death vi man. isn't there a public domain
>>vi clone, even if written for (yuk) DOS that could be modified for minix?
>>i don't need the full vi; a subset would be good enough...

>Well if you are REALLY desperate there is something called TVX which is
>a EMACS/VI subset clone (compile time option).  It runs on the PC but I
>am also a die-hard vi man and this wasn't close enough for me.
>If your really interested I can send it although we may not have the
>latest version.  Anybody else out there have any comments on TVX?

I also found TVX too different from vi to be acceptable. It is also
fairly buggy - took a while to get it going. Its way of handing large
files was also painful (manually `paging' in parts).

However, there is an alternative. Bad news first - it is not PD.
However, it might still be usable. The source is Webb Miller's "A Software
Tools Primer", Prentice-Hall, 1987. It is, of course, copyright. However,
P-H indicate that copies of the sources are available, but give no details
apart from an address to write to. Miller describes a reasonably complete
(and true) subset of vi. It is also remarkably well written - I consider
it some of the best C code I have seen published anywhere. I have extended
it quite a bit, to include the following:

- edit large files in small memory systems (such as Minix)
- better support for a wide range of terminals (but no termcap
  screen driver yet - not a problem for Minix?)
- egrep-style patterns
- multiple marks
- autoindent, and 'C' modes
- addresses:
	b B e f F G h H j k l L M n N t T w W ^ $ 0 / ? , ; ' + - <cr> `
- operators (combine with addresses):
	c d y < >
- commands:
	a A C D ^g i I J m o O p P r s S u x X ZZ .
	:w :n :e :set :r :q

My current version works on UNIX V7, MS-DOS and CP/M (yep, even a Z80).
It is quite compact - expect <32K a.out file for Minix.

It doesn't have keyboard mapping, function keys, most "ex" commands, and some
other esoterica, and the syntax for the ":" commands is somewhat different from 
"vi". However, it IS VERY USABLE in its current form. I will probably add ":!"
in the next few days.

Now, how do we get to use this version? The original is copyright. Anyone
in the US want to get Prentice-Hall's permission to distribute sources
DERIVED from the original? Is this possible? If not, I guess I could try
finding a local Minix system, compile it, and distribute the executable. So,
could someone there ring P-H (or even Webb Miller) and test their
feelings on this? Either way, we may get something going soon.