[TUHS] Old screen editors

[Mary Ann Horton]

se(1) is in my UNIX 5.0 manual, which was the internal version of System 
V release 1. It makes sense that it would be the one Andrew wrote.

My recollection is that se was the result of Not Invented Here. There 
was lots of demand for vi in the internal USG version of UNIX, and it 
was present in exptools, but not the official distribution of UNIX. 
(Lots of demand for emacs, too, also in exptools.) Rather than adopt one 
of them, se was written. I think it appeared about UNIX 4.2.

My UNIX 5.0 manual also has vi(1). Once vi was installed, demand for se 
went away. I'm not sure when it was dropped, but it's not in my SVID.

     Mary Ann

On 3/29/22 07:42, Andrew Hume wrote:
> alas, no.
> it should have been on some official source tapes, tho.
> it was part of some office automation set of software;
> maybe that was mentioned in the tapes.
>
> i too remember nothing about it. outside of doing it
> because management wanted it, i never optionally used it.
>
>> On Mar 29, 2022, at 7:35 AM, arnold at skeeve.com wrote:
>>
>> Cool! I bet this was it! It was on a System 4 system.
>>
>> The commands were entered at the top of the screen. I remember almost
>> nothing else about it.
>>
>> Is there any chance you still have the source?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Arnold
>>
>> Andrew Hume <andrew at humeweb.com> wrote:
>>
>>> se?
>>>
>>> this may be a consequence for using such a bland name for a screen editor,
>>> but i wrote a screen editor called ’se’ in 1981-83, just after we had moved
>>> from piscataway to murray hill.
>>>
>>> it was part of an effort to do office automation style products for Unix,
>>> and came in around the time Unix transitioned from System III through
>>> System 4 through the early days of System V.
>>>
>>> my se was not very good, but i did have denis ritchie as an early tester.