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Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?
From: |
Paul Fox |
Subject: |
Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager? |
Date: |
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:05:52 -0500 |
ken wrote:
> >GNU's lame attempts at humour aside, that actually makes sense. MH
> >is a line oriented tool, so defaulting to a line oriented editor is
> >consistent with that. If the chain Editor: -> $VISUAL -> $EDITOR comes
> >up empty, ed is a perfectly reasonable default.
>
> Ok, this means I get to ask a question of greybeards that I've always
> wondered about.
>
> What is the deal with VISUAL and EDITOR? I always set EDITOR; I've never
> set VISUAL. I've never understood what the difference is. I'm fine with
> making the hierarchy Editor: -> $VISUAL -> $EDITOR (and I think a default
> of 'vi' is fine), but I've always wondered why there are two environment
> variables.
not all terminals were capable of doing the cursor addressing needed
for any given screen-oriented editor. so the user was given the ability
to configure two editors -- likely "ed" and "vi", though some folks may
have used emacs or "se" :-). some programs had separate commands for
invoking the two. (for instance, see ~e and ~v in the mailx man page.)
paul
=---------------------
paul fox, address@hidden (arlington, ma, where it's 45.0 degrees)
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, (continued)
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, David Levine, 2013/01/13
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Ken Hornstein, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Ralph Corderoy, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Ken Hornstein, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Lyndon Nerenberg, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Paul Vixie, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Lyndon Nerenberg, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Paul Fox, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Ken Hornstein, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Tethys, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?,
Paul Fox <=
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, chad, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Lyndon Nerenberg, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Paul Fox, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Ken Hornstein, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Lyndon Nerenberg, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Lyndon Nerenberg, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Ralph Corderoy, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Lyndon Nerenberg, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Lyndon Nerenberg, 2013/01/14
- Re: [Nmh-workers] Ditch autoconf selection of pager?, Lyndon Nerenberg, 2013/01/14