TDP had two main uses:

One use was as a publishing utility.  It had functionality to work with
files similar to old Wordstar 3.3 with "dot"  commands.  It worked well
with the old HP2680 laser printer and used environment files in that
context.  Was used to publish documents.  If you remember some old HP
manuals that were printed on one side of the paper and the inner side of
the fold was always "blank" (i.e. the old spiral bound HP2563 printer
manual)  chances were that it was formatted with TDP to a HP2680 printer.

The other use was that it was otherwise similar to the HP Editor as far
being a "line editor" except that it took advantage of the HP terminal's
"block mode" capability and let you edit text on the terminal screen until
you hit "Enter."  You could use the edit keypad (insert line, delete line,
insert char, delete char, and the arrow keys.)  It had wierd limitations,
for example, if you inserted too many lines and pushed text below the
"screen memory"*, you "lost" those lines.  It was "very"  expensive if all
you wanted was a full screen editor.  It was usually purchased for the
production printing mentioned above, and programmers would use it as a
full screen editor just becase it was "also there".  Aborted TDP sessions
also created ?####### numbered files that also had to be cleaned up
periodically like Editor does.

*Screen memory, was based on your terminal type.  If you were using a
HP2622A, you had two pages less screen memory than an HP2624B, and for
pages less than an HP2626W, and six pages less than an HP2628B.  (My
general rule of thumb** was that the last digit of those type of terminals
represented the number of screen pages of memory.)

** I say "rule of thumb" because I'm not sure it wasn't just my perception
or HP design.

Don't ask me about "HPWord".

On Mon, 28 Sep 1998, Curtis Larsen wrote:

> Please pardon a question which, upon it's asking will demonstrate a
> considerable lack of knowledge regarding available HP3000 line
> editors, but hey -- here I go:
>
> Editor I know, and Quad I know, but what the heck is TDP?
>
>
> Question #2:
>
> If one cannot convince one's management to purchase something nifty
> like <plug> QEdit </plug>, then what are the votes for the best
> all-around minimal-hassle host-based line editor? (JCL & command file
> editing, mostly -- mebbe a little Perl/Python -- but no C or COBOL..)
>
>
> (Many thanks in advance for kind responses and genteel pity.)
>
> Curtis
>
>
> PS - Sorry  for any annoying tags -- my messages get modified after I
> send 'em.
>
>
>
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Tracy Johnson
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