Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!umd5!ncifcrf!nlm-mcs!brl-adm!brl-smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: vi vs emacs in a student environment
Message-ID: <8259@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: 29 Jul 88 04:17:06 GMT
References: <16543@brl-adm.ARPA>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 23

In article <16543@brl-adm.ARPA> rbj@nav.icst.nbs.gov (Root Boy Jim) writes:
>The ASCII definition of DEL is `rubout', i.e. delete-backward-character.

Quite an imagination you have.
DEL originated as an overpunch of all channels on the paper tape,
to delete the character thereby overpunched -- NOT the previous one.

>The standard erase character on VAXEN is `delete', and has always been,
>since the days when VAXEN were PDP-11's. To their credit, Berkeley changed
>their standard character set to be compatible (except for ^D) with DEC
>OS's.

DEC OSes certainly have made DEL perform an erase function for a long
time, but UNIX is not a DEC OS and has had its own conventions.  Since
DEL was the default interrupt key since `way back when, it was not such
a good idea for a UNIX implementation to change it.  Many UNIX users do
use DEL for the interrupt key (and usually BACKSPACE for the erase key,
and ^U or ^X for line delete),

>^H is a mnemonic for `help', and makes as much sense as most editing
>commands.

Funny, mine says "BACK SPACE" right on the key cap.  That doesn't
suggest "help" to me...