[24] in Software_Announce
nvi installed in sipb locker
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Calvin Clark)
Sat May 14 18:31:35 1994
Date: Sat, 14 May 1994 18:31:27 -0400
From: Calvin Clark <ckclark@MIT.EDU>
To: bug-sipb@MIT.EDU
Cc: software-announce@MIT.EDU, vi-users@MIT.EDU, proven@MIT.EDU
(Will be available when the volume is released, say, tomorrow morning.)
NVI is an free implementation of VI written by Keith Bostic, formerly of the
Berkeley BSD group. It includes a number of new features in addition to
what's available in the standard vi:
* 8-bit clean data, large lines, files
(I tested this by editing a copy of the kernel. You can edit binary
files just like any others.)
* split screens/multiple files
The command :sp[lit] [file ...] splits the screen. CTRL-W switches
between foreground screens. Screens can be put in the foreground or
background with :fg and :bg. This means that mulitple files can
be edited at the same time, which is not possible with the standard
UNIX vi.
* shell screens
* tag stacks
An useful improvement for people who use tags files regularly.
* displays for cut buffers, screens, and tags
* infinite undo
* :help, :viusage, and :exusage give built-in help for key bindings
and command syntax.
* extended regular expressions (:set extended) enables egrep-style
regular expression sematanics for searches, etc. (These are POSIX.2
compliant ERE's.)
* word search (^A)
* number increment (#)
Pretty stupid. Adds one to the number under the cursor.
* previous file (:prev)
* left-right scrolling
:set leftright enables horizontal scrolling (rather than
line-wrapping)
This is still pretty much beta test software.
-Calvin
P.S. There are some interesting file names in this package. The source
which controls the screen functions for ex is in a subdirectory named
"sex," which contains the following files:
sex_confirm.c sex_refresh.c sex_screen.h sex_util.c
sex_get.c sex_screen.c sex_term.c
Unfortunately, the contents of these files are less interesting than
their names.
