Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att-cb!att-ih!chinet!wnp
From: wnp@chinet.UUCP (Wolf N. Paul)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Need DOS vi
Message-ID: <4731@chinet.UUCP>
Date: 8 Apr 88 08:21:47 GMT
References: <343@mitisft.Convergent.COM> <4.UUL1.3#948@fernwood.mpk.ca.us> <537@mccc.UUCP>
Reply-To: wnp@chinet.UUCP (Wolf N. Paul)
Organization: Chinet - Public Access Unix
Lines: 32

In article <537@mccc.UUCP> pjh@mccc.UUCP (Peter J. Holsberg) writes:
>
>I saw a VI for the PC on a local BBS the other night.  Does anyone know
>anything about it?
>

This is probably "Z", a program distributed with older versions of the
Aztec C Compiler by Manx Software.

It does not offer any ex commands other than :w and :q, and its search
command does not implement full REs.

I find it quite irritating to work with, because of the above limitations.

The program has a banner with a copyright notice; nonetheless the program
shows up on quite a few BBS whose sysops don't tolerate piracy, so
although I have not expressly heard this, it is possible that Manx 
have decided to allow free distribution of this early and rudimentary version
of their editor.

I highly recommend the MKS Toolkit, which is available from discount mailorder
places for as little as $109. 

One discounter has recently started charging $145, claiming that MKS have raised
their retail price on it to $169 -- this is nonsense. As of this date, 4/8/88,
MKS is still selling the Toolkit for $139 US, and anybody charging more than
that is trying to b.s. their customers.

Wolf Paul
wnp@chinet
wnp@killer
wnp@dcs