NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #1/NN_1993_1.iso/spool/comp/sys/amiga/applicat/9829

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-06 | 1.7 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!wupost!waikato.ac.nz!canterbury.ac.nz!otago.ac.nz!jomar
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.applications
Subject: Re: CygnusEd and control character
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
From: [e-mail]
Date: 7 Jan 93 16:18:48 +1300
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.applications
References: <[e-mail]>
Organization: University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
Lines: 26

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Bob Maple) writes:
> Has anyone any idea why in CygnusEd when you try to enter a control code,
> it does the control code, immediately followed by a linefeed?

That ain't no bug, it's a feature.  (Have you heard that before? :-))

Remember that CEd is just as happy with binary (eg, executable) files as
text files.  However, I have had problems with text files containing
extremely long lines (~2000 chars).  Herein lies the bug/feature: CEd
handles large files, but not large (long) lines.  Now, where do you break
a line in a binary file?  There's no guarantee of a linefeed char in the
file, let alone anytime soon.  CEd's solution is to break lines frequently
in a binary file, in fact every few characters.  In effect, _almost_
_all_control_codes_act_as_line_feeds_as_well. (Almost because tab and
linefeed are handled specially (ie, aren't displayed).)

Thus, when you try to enter a control code, what really happens is that the
(single) control code is entered, and the code's representation (inverse A,
etc) and a line break are displayed.

If you're a shell user, try saving a short file containing control chars and
typing at the shell
  TYPE file HEX

Hope this helps,
John Marshall.  ([e-mail])