2 Dec
2014
2 Dec
'14
6 a.m.
I was seeking the "best" pdp11 prose text editing experience for typing
in manuscripts, composing, letter writing, etc. (not programming language -
that was just a side effect of some editors actually being programming
languages in and of themselves).
Since this is such a highly relative subject, I expected a slew of
answers and got them (thanks, all!).
While not part of the originally-intended scope, the conversation has
inspired me to at least try composing in TeX, which I've sort of meant to
do for years, but never got a round tuit. Sounds like it'll stay out of my
way and allow me to just flow ideas and not even address layout until the
end, which is, in essence, what I'm after. That said, I think the most
convincing answer to my original question so far, not having actually
reviewed them yet, is some kind of emacs, most likely Jove since it's
already there in 2.xBSD and keeps me from having to mess with/re-learn
other operating systems (oh, shoot!). As a side note, I used teco and edt
back when pdp11s running DEC operating systems were still being phased out
and found them to be unsatisfying; however, I do admit that I was an
amateur at them.
My other point here was to get the Diablo 630 going and have it type
nice, letter-quality copy for me. Since my kid had a report due this
morning, I caved and temporarily connected it to an old Sun machine and
just threw lpd at it. Pretty straightforward:
lpadmin -p diablo -v /dev/cua/b -o stty=300 -o banner=never
enable diablo
accept diablo
So the thing's up and accepting jobs. Prints like a war zone :) !!!
Once one of the '11s is up, on the net and stabilized, I'd like to have it
take over this role as well.
thx again for all the discussion around this & feel welcome to continue the
thread!
jake