Re:
> : The command of course, has the colon at the front of it, and you have to
> : remember to delete that or it gets transmitted.
>
> Ah, but there's this magic function key on your terminal (under MODES)
> labeled "LINE MODIFY", which many people don't know how to use.

Of course, on the Classic HP 3000, it was sometimes faster to edit the
line, do "cursor up", control-X, and then hit <backspace> (which would echo a
blank, thereby erasing the colon) and then <enter>  ... than trying to use Line
Modify!

This is partially because Line Modify was not as usable on "output" lines
(as opposed to prompt/user-input lines)  (see below)

Plus, if you lived in QEDIT (as I did!) or MPEX, they had
a far superior redo capability built in.

So, using a combination of a simple technique usable on *any* HP terminal
(not just those with Line Modify, whichever ones they were), and a good
redo, I never had to use Line Modify.

Interestingly enough, QCTerm's Line Modify doesn't work exactly like
some HP terminals and some emulators (or, to say it differently, it works
slightly differently than all the ones I've tried today).

Example:

   :basic
(you'll be prompted: >)
    10 PRINT "hi sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss",&

(you'll be prompted: >>)
    "this is a more long text"

You'll find that everyone's Line Modify seems to let you modify both the
"10 print" and the "this is more" lines.

However, now try:

    list
(you'll see:
    10 PRINT &
      "hi sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss",&
      "this is a more long text"

Now, you'll find that you can't Line Modify either continuation
line anywhere easily except in QCTerm.   Well, let me be more precise...
if you start by doing a Line Modify of the "10 PRINT" line, and hit
return, BASIC prompts with ">>" (to the left of the "hi sss..." line.
Then, if you hit Line Modify [and optionally edit the line]
nd then <return>, everyone except QCTerm sends the entire line (including
the ">>" prompt!), which causes an error with BASIC.  QCTerm somehow
decided to strip the ">>", which is nice (even if apparently incompatible :)

BTW, I confirmed that Line Modify seems to operate completely independently
of DC1 prompts...which is disappointing, because I thought that would be
a cool way for it to have been implemented.  I confirmed this on a Classic
HP 3000, where I could see for 100% positive that no DC1's were coming
to the terminal ... yet Line Modify still knew what was prompt and what
was user-input.

SS

Stan Sieler                                           [log in to unmask]
www.allegro.com/sieler/wanted/index.html          www.allegro.com/sieler