[TUHS] screen editors / machine load

[Otto Moerbeek]

On Fri, Jan 10, 2020 at 08:41:53AM -0500, Mike Markowski wrote:

> [2020-01-09 08:49] Dave Horsfall <dave at horsfall.org>
> > > I had a boss once who insisted that all his staff learn "ed",
> > > because one day it might be the only editor available; he was
> > > right...
> >
> 
> I first used Unix on a pdp-11/70 in 1981, first year at university.  My
> professor stopped by the computing center to see how his students were
> doing - super nice of him and a perk to pre-PC times! - and was showing me
> something or other regarding Unix.  I had only used ed to that point and
> seeing him fire up vi was practically sci-fi to me.  He showed me a few
> commands and vowed me to secrecy for fear if all students started using it,
> it would bring the 11/70 to its knees.  Were multiple vi sessions really
> such a potential burden to the machine?  I wouldn't think so with the slow
> nature of human i/o, yet there certainly were times when the pdp-11/70
> crashed as project due dates loomed closer and closer!
> 
> Also, I very much enjoy this list.  As an EE I use Unix-like OSes as a tool
> rather being a builder of the tool like many here.  So I don't have the
> deep background to contribute to the collective history, but I'm on the
> sidelines enjoying the show.  As a brief tie-in to the editor comparisons,
> I do a lot of DSP work for RF systems these days.  Python makes it quick
> and easy to try new math, but has a maddening requirement that indentation
> be strictly tabs or strictly spaces.  Text window pasting into a tab
> indented python file wreaks havoc.  vim yank/put between split windows
> retains the type of white space and lets me use my vi muscle memory.
> 
> Happy 2020,
> Mike Markowski

In my first year at university (1984) we had a VAX-11/750 running
4.1BSD with too many students. We had to switch to ex once in a while
to get any editing done. I believe it was not only vi itself that was
causing the load, it was also running many terminals in raw mode that
killed performance.

	-Otto