Aucbonyx.245
net.bugs.2bsd,net.bugs.4bsd
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!duke!chico!harpo!mhtsa!eagle!ihnss!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:Onyx:jmrubin
Thu Jan 28 13:53:03 1982
A suggested change for more
prompt, if you're more'ing a file.  It looks for vi in a specific place.
This has two problems.
       (1) If you have a brain-damaged (or hard-copy) terminal,
or your $TERM/$TERMCAP variable isn't set correctly, vi may semi-bomb,
depending on which version of vi you're using.  (If it's a nice
version, it will just go into open mode automatically.)
       (2) If you have a free login which mores a file, you give
it the ability to fork a shell from vi.  (shell escapes tend to die
otherwise--since more looks at your $SHELL variable.)  (Of course,
you can pipe the file into more--which destroys the ability to go
into vi.)

       Suggestion:  (1) more should use your shell with the -c
(or maybe -cf) flag to find vi.  This would also be nice if vi moves,
or if a new version becomes available in a non-standard place.
                       (2) Maybe it should use some environmental
varialbe to find which visual editor you like to use--maybe you
like a version of emacs or teco, instead.
                       (3) If you're on a bad terminal, it should
use ex, or something similarly non-visual.

                               Joel Rubin

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