The user
suddenly had the ability to position text anywhere on
the screen.
Such innovations would take another two decades to make
their way into the commercial marketplace. Still, by
the 1970s, video screens had started to replace
teletypes as display terminals, creating the potential
for full-screen-as opposed to line-by-line-editing capabilities.
One of the first programs to take advantage of this
full-screen capability was the MIT AI Lab's TECO. Short
for Text Editor and COrrector, the program had been
upgraded by hackers from an old teletype line editor
for the lab's PDP-6 machine.ccording to the Jargon File, TECO's name originally
stood for Tape Editor and Corrector.
TECO was a substantial improvement over old editors,
but it still had its drawbacks. To create and edit a
document, a programmer had to enter a series of
software commands specifying each edit. It was an
abstract process. Unlike modern word processors, which
update text with each keystroke, TECO demanded that the
user enter an extended series of editing instructions
followed by an "end of command" sequence just to change
the text.
Pages:
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174