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XX-9BC2A-59

November 1977

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Document:	TECO SIG Moby Munger 1 197711
Order Number:	XX-9BC2A-59
Revision:	000
Pages:	17
Original Filename:	http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/teco/TECO_SIG_Moby_Munger_1_197711.pdf

OCR Text

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The ofl6,i.,cA..al oJz.gan 06 ;the TECO Speual Inte/r.e.6.t SJz.aup
Issue #1

November 1977

-----------------------~------------------ ~-----

Contributions and correspondence should be sent to
the editor:
Stanley Rabinowitz
P. o. ·Box 76
··Maynard, MA ,01754
Camera ready copy is preferred.
Ready-to~use material
should b~ prepared on 8 1/2 x 11 inch white bond paper.
A one inch margin should be maintained on both sides, on
the top and on the bottom. Material. should be reasonably
cleari, .legible, sufficiently dark copy for printing.
Material prepared on electrostatic printers (e~g. Versatec
print~rs, Xerox machines, etc.) are often-unsuitable for
photographic reproduction.
CONTENTS
Symposia notes
Notes from RSX
Notes from TOPS-1~
Notes from IAS
Problem with TECO type-in
Notes from OS/8
Optional patch to change default EH value
Optional patch to remove Yank protection
Optional patch to change default EU value
Notes from RT-11
Notes from RSTS/E
Problem reading RMS files
Differences between TEC0-11 V28 and V27
Macro of the Month
TECO documentation available from DEC
Beginner's column
V'r8-E TECO
Com.'11ents from Bob Harper
Differences between OS/8 TECO V4 and VS
Macros available from DECOS
TECO Techniques
Compatibility Corner

page_
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SYMPOSIA NOTES
Impetus to start a TECO SIG was generated at the Spring
DECOS symposium. We had a hefty group of over 50 peo~le
show up for a TECO GURUs session . . We collected names and
signatures and John Alderman agreed to act as SIG chairman.
We also had a demonstration by Herb Jacobs of his new VT52
support for TEC0-11. Everyone was impressed.
There was also a TECO tutorial given. It was attended by
about 50 people {mostly RT-11 users) and was a big success.
We.hope to continue to sponsor these tutorials at future
conventions.
There was much discussion about starting up a procedure
by which users would distribute versions of TECO which DEC
did not want to release as products. We did not follow up
on this since it soon became apparent that TECO would ship
with.RT-11 and IAS (although as unsupported products). We
plan to discuss this further at the Fall symposium.
The DECOS Fall Symposium will be held this year in San
The TECO SIG has ari organizational meeting scheduled
for Wednesday, November 3~, from 2 PM to 3 PM. We hope you
can all attend.

D~ego.

We will spend the ·first half hour talking about organizational matters. We will need several volunteers to
handle SIG activities. We will need a SIG coordinator,
a library chairman, etc.
If you are interested in helping
the SIG but cannot attend our meeting, please drop a note
to either Stan Rabinowitz or John Alderman.
In the second half hour, we hope to have a few informal
talks given. There are still slots open.
If you would like
to give a 5 or l~ minute short talk on some TECO topic,
just be prepared and we'll make time for you.
There will most likely also be several 'birds of a feather'
TECO sessions scheduled.
Copies of various versions of rrECO will be available, so if .
you want them, come prepared to copy them. We will.
probably have them available on two media; most likely is
magtape, and perhaps DECtape.

Readers are urged to submit article~, techniques, notes,
hacks, ideas, comments, or criticisms about TECO to the
TECO SIG newsletter.
2

NOTES FROM. RSX
The V3 release of RSX-11/M contained TECO V24. TECO is
rtot a DEC-supported product.
No manual for TECO was
included in the RSX manual set, however the TECO manual
distributed in the DECUS 11-288 kit should suffice to
tell you everything you need to know to use and run TECO
under RSX-11/M.
Version 28 (or maybe V29) of RSX-11/M TECO will shortly
be submitted to DECUS, along with a manual and the source
of the RSX TECO I/O module. W~ will let you know when
this happens via this newsletter.

NOTES FROM TOPS-10
TECO is a DEC-supported product on the DECSYSTEM-I~,
a.lthough very little work is being done on it.
Fortunately it is very stable with little or no bugs
in it.
Version 23C(l75} has recently been released. Tl1is version
has ~ery little different from V23B, an~ in fact, all the
changes only affect the ER, EW, EB, EZ, EX, EG, and EM
commands. V23C underst~nds default paths, SFD's, libraries,
ersatz devices, and some new switches such as /SCAN, /NEW,
/NOCREATE, /NOWRITE, and /SYS.
On the EB command, the new source, the .BAK file, and
any .TMP files will now always appear in the area specified
in the EB command (they used to go into the user's area).
The new source (and .TMP if any) will have the same protection as the old source. The .BAK file gets the same
protection as the previous .BAK file if one existed,
otherwise it gets the same protection as the input source,
with the owner field lowered if necessary to allow owner
deletion.
If a file is found in a library (such as NEW:), TECO
will treat it as a-read-only file.

·The current version of TOPS-1~ TECO is version 24(2~2)
which was released in March of 1977. More information
about this version will be given in our next newsletter.

NOTES FROM. IAS
TECO V28 was distributed with IAS V2.~ . However, TECO
is not a DEC-supported product. Also distributed was
VTECO, a version of TECO containing a VT52 scope driver.
Problems with TECO type-in
There is a bug in IAS TECO's terminal type-in code
that causes some characters to be entered incorrectly.
This bug is corrected using the following TKB patch
(IAS·TECO patch #1):
.
GBLPAT=DATA:TLISTN+5~~:121427
GBLPAT=DATA:TLISTN+5~6:121427

GBLPAT=DATA:TLISTN+514:112714
GBLPAT=DATA:TLISTN+52~:121427

GBLPAT=DATA:TLISTN+526:142714
Edit these five lines into the conu~and file, TECBLD.CMD,
~mmediately preceding the last line in the file and then
rebuild TECO.
.
The same patch works for the build file for VTECO.

NOTES FROM OS/8
TECO VS was recently rei~ased with OS/8 V3D. Considerable
work has been done on it to make it more compatible with
the TECOs on the -1~ and -11. The most notable improvements are:
improved error messages, improved precision,
scope support, and data protection for the Yank. command.
Details about the differences between V4 and VS can be
found in an article elsewhere in this newsletter.
OPTIONAL PATCH to change the default EH value
In OS/8 TECO VS, as on the PDP-1~ and -11, the default
value of the EH flag is ~, which is the same as 2. This
value causes the one-line form of an error message to
print upon encountering an error.
This could be annoying
to experienced users with slow terminals. Naturally, yoti
can change this at run-time by executing the lEH command
which causes only the 3-chara~ter error message code to
print thereafter. Users who wish to cause the default
value of the EH flag to be permanently set to 1, can
install the following patch:
.GET SYS:TECO
•ODT
4572/~~0~
1

.SAVE SYS:TECO
4

OPTIONAL PATCH to remove Yank protection
Probably the most common way to lose data in TECO is to
accidentally type 'Y' when you meant to. type 'T'. OS/8 TECO
VS has included what is know as Yank protection, first
i~plemented on the PDP-11.
Yank protection causes the
error message ?YCA (Yank Command Aborted) to be produced
any time that the Y or
command is issued and there is
text in the text buffer-and there is an output file open.
If all these conditions are met, it is presumed that you
are about to lose some important.data, and so the command
is rejected. Note that the Yank is always legal if the
text buffer is empty or if no output file is open.
If
you really want-to do the Yank, you can always type HKY,
a conunand which will always succeed.
The PDP-11 also put in a feature which allows you to turn
off Yank protection (set ED, the edit level flag, to -1).
Unfortunately, there was not enough time (or room) to
implement this feature in OS/8 .
[It will probably
make it.into the next release~]
In the mean time, people who do not wish to have Yank
protection, can patch it .out of TECO by installing the
following patch:
.GET SYS:TECO
.ODT

2fJ32/764f' 76lfJ

.SAVE SYS:TECO
OPTIONAL PATCH to change the default EU value
In OS/8 TECO VS, the default value for the EU flag is fJ
(uriless .SET TTY SCOPE has been specified to the KBM,
in which case the default value is -1.)
Users who wish
to permanently change the default value to be -1 (no case
flagging) may install the_ following patch:
.GET SYS:TECO
.ODT

457(;>/fffJf.1% 7777
2245/765,0 72ffff

.SAVE SYS:TECO

NOTES FROM RT-11
RT-11 TECO Version 28 is included in the RT-11 V3 kit as
an unsupported product. Also included is a manual that
is applicable to all the PDP-11 TECOs. ·Note that this
manual describes version 27 of TEC0-11 and that the
changes for V28 can be found in the RT-11 release notes.
·Also in the· release notes manual can be found a macro,
which, when used in conjunction with the VT52 support in
TECO, gives the user immediate mode keypad editing on a
VT52.
This macro, in machine readable form, will be included in
the RT-11 V3 TECO kit that· is being submitted to DECUS
and will probably replace DECOS 11-288. The new source
of the RT-11 T_ECO I/O module will' also be included.
Changes have been made to the tW command to accommodate
VT52 support.
[VTll support remains unchanged.]
The VT52 screen shows a portion of the text buffer
including lines before and after the current text pointer.
The screen is automatically updated each time TECO goes
back to command level.
In addition, the user can cause
the· screen to be updated from within a macro via use of
the ntW command.
For a VT52, the ntW command works as follows:
ntW where n is positive specifies that the line containing
the current text pointer is to be displayed on the nth
line of the VT52. n should be between 6 and 23
inclusive. The default display corresponds to 16tW
is the same as 16tW •
-ltW causes a VT52 screen update. Note that the VT52
support remembers what characters were previously on
the· screen and only changes tho_se characters:.-which
have changed.

~tw

ntW where -23< n <-2 performs a screen update but forces
the first lnl-1 lines to be redisplayed even if they
hadn ··t changed.
(This might be useful if the macro
had performed output to the screen which destroyed
the integrity of the window into the text buffer.)

NOTES FROM RSTS/E.
TEC0-11 has been running under RSTS/E in-house at DEC
for quite a while now, however it is not currently
available from DEC. At the last DECUS symposium, we
talked about the feasibility of distributing RSTS TECO
through u~ers and we will follow up on this proposal at
San Diego. We expect to have version 29 available at the

SIG meeting to anyone who .wishes to copy it. We.are also
trying to convince the RSTS group .to release it with the
next RSTS/E release.

PROBLEM READING RMS FILES
RSTS TECO V28 cannot read certain RMS.files.
be corrected in version 29.

This bug will

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TEC0-11 V28 and V27:
TEC0-11 V28 contains the 'following new features:
a)

New use for colon modifier.
The X and tu TECO commands may now be colon
modified.
The colop modifier, in these ~ases,
indicates that the specified text is to be
appended to the end of the contents of the
specifi~d Q-register.
{With6ut the :, the
Q-register gets loaded and its previous contents
are lost.)

b) . New match control coilstruct.
The construct tEGq now has new meaning when
encountered within a search string. This
construct matches any character which belongs
to the group of characters contained within
Q-register q.
For example, if Q-register A
contains the text string, abed, then the command
StEGA$ would search for the first occurrence of
one of the letters a, b, c, or d in the text
buffer {folldwing the pointer) . This example
is equivalent to the TOPS-1,0 TECO command

S@ [a,b,c,d] $
c)

Two new ET bits have been defined.
Bit 9 {representing 512) if on indicates that the
terminal is a VT52 and that VT52 support code has
been configured into TECO~
Bit 1,0 {representing 1,024) if on indicates that ar!
auxiliary VTll is present and that VTll support
code has been configured into TECO.
Both bits are read-only.

Revision to tc trap code.
Now, if tc trapping is enabled (bit 15 of ET flag
on), and tc is typed to a pending tT~ then bit 15
is turned off and a 3 is returned to TECO.
TECO
continues to execute.
(In previous versions of
TEC0-111 the tc would abort 'rECO conunand execution
in this case.)
7

TECO MACRO OF THE MONTH
+~Un Qn"E2~Un'

J1Uh ~Uv HK

Qn<J ~Uq Qn*lfJ/3~i
Qi<,+2*lfJ+(Qq*Qi}Ua ~LK Qi*2-1Uj Qa/QjUq Qa-{Qq*Qj)-2\lfJI$ Qi-lUi>
Qq/lfJUt Qh+Qt+48Uw Qw-58"E48Uw %v' Qv"NQvtT' QwUv Qq-{Qt*lfJ)Uh>
QvtT

The above macro should run on the PDP-8, PDP-1~, and PDP-11
with the follo~ing exception: TOPS-1~ TECO and older versions
of OS/8 TECO do not have the ntT feature.
This command types
out the character whose ASCII representation is n.
For TECOs
which do not have this feature, it can be easily simulated
as specified below:
ntT

nI$ .. -1, .T -D

This month's macro was written by Stan Rabinowitz with
modifications by. Mark Bramhall and has been submitted without
comments or explanation.
Readers are urged to submit worthy macros to the editor
for possible inclusion in this column. Each issue, the
editor will select the 'best' one received (if any) and
print it, thus giving great fame and recognition to its
author. The selection will be based purely on the subjective
whim of ·the editor, and his decision will be final.
(But I can tell you right now - usefulness is not an
important crit~rion.)
Non-standar6 TECO features should
be avoided, unless essential to the.hack-value o~ beauty
of the submission. Macros over lfJfJ characters long should
be submitted in machine-readable form along with a neat
listing.

TECO DOCUMENTATION AVAILABLE FROM DEC
TOPS-1,0:

DEC-SYSTEM-1,0 TECO PROGH.AMMERS REFERENCE MANUAL
DEC-1,0-UTPRA-A-D
·available from SDC

OS/8:

OS/8 HANDBOOK, pp. 2-132 to 2~184.
DEC-88-0SHBA-A-D
OS/8 HANDBOOK UPDATE pp. 2,0-25.
DEC-S8-0SHBA-A-DN4
both available from SDC

PDP-11:

PDP-11 TECO User's Guide
July 1977
DEC-11-UTECA-A-D
DEC-11-UTECA-A-DNl (update notice no. l}
available from SDC
NOTE: Although the cover of this manual claims it
represents TECO V28, this is.wrong.
The V28
refers to the fact that the software distributed
·with RT-11 is V28; however, the manual actually
describes TECO V27.

RT-11:

RT-11 TECO REI.EASE NOTES

DEC-11-0RTNA-A-D
comes with RT-11 kit and supplements the User's
guide.
·BEGINNER'S COLUMN
At the last few DECUS symposia, we found a lot of
people interested in le.arning TECO.
For these people, we
hope to publish a column which will talk about common
tricks and techniques which are old-hat to the experienced
users. ·Material is solicited for this column for the next
issue.
Although TECO is very complex, it turns out that a small
subset of_ commands is enouqh to allow you to perform all
your every-day editing funct~ons.
Specific information on
novice subsets of TECO can be found in the fol lowing docum1::nts:
TOPS-1,0:
OS/8:
PDP-11:

INTRODUCTION TO TECO, DEC-1,0-UTECA-A-D
OS/8 HANDBOOK, pages 2-132 to 2-141.
TECO Vser's Guide, Chapter I.

VT8-E TECO·
~ob

Harper has sent in the following information about
a version of OS/8 TECO which uses a VT8-E:

For those of you wierd people with VT8-E's on their
machines, the P?S has available a version of OS/8 TECO V4
with VT8-E support. The code taKes full advantage of the
features of the VT8-E in a manner similar to GT-4~ TECO
on the PDP-11. ·rf a VT8-E is indeed present on your
system and at least 12K of core is available, TECO will
come up on the VT8-E; if either of these conditions fail,
TECO will come up on the console in the usual fashion.
The se ... '.~ switch is used to arbitrate which display mode
is in effect. The user can either select a text buffer
display window or a command/user-input display. The
tW command is supported {a la VR14 TECO) for immediate
display· update and for controlling the number of lines
per screen to display. One field is stolen for the two
displ~y buffers, so if you have 12K, TECO will be.limited
to using BK, whereas if you have 16K, TECO will be given
12K so.that increased Q-register space will be used.
If a~yone is interested, contact Bob Harper directly.
His ~ddress is:
Bob Harper
2~ Diamond Street
Naugatuck, CT ~677~
CO.MMENTS FROM BOB HARPER
Bob also sent along some comments.
1. Page 42, 3rd paragraph of TEC0-11 V27 manual has a typo.
"apostophe" should read "apostrophe". Also, on page 58,
the comment on the l~Ul line would be clearer if it read
! Put a l~ (if radi~ is decimal) or 8 (if radix is octal)
into Q-register 1 !

A91tee.d. - Ed.
2. There should be a comniand to insert an arbitrary
character into the text part of a Q-register, as with
the nI$ command.
I suggest ntUq$ and n@tUq//

Thl6 -Oee.mo ve.Jttj JteMunab.te and c.oM~ten,t with otheA pafd-6 06 the.
language. 1 am told .tha;t th-L6 6ecvtWt-e w.ltt p!tobably go i.J1-to
ve.Jt-Oion 29
TEC0-11. - Ed.
'
.I

Ther~ sJ:ould be ? ccmriand to get a l~e of input (from the terminal

or indirect file) and put it into a Q-register so that
the usual editing features (RUBOUT, CTRL/U) ar~ available without simulation by a macro and so that the
text buffer need not be used. This feature would be
great for things like ADDCOM macros.

An int:.vi~ting ide.a.. Howe..veJc., whai. you. p!tobably ne.e.d i.6 a
TECO ma.cJw LLb1taJty. TIU..,O would make.. a wondeJt6ui. adcU;Uon
to 1.>u.c.h a libtc.M.y. - Ed~
4.

To reiterate an old argument, the 'PW' command is
inconsistent with the language and should be replaced
by, say, a 'W' conunand. All TECO commands are
either 1 character or 1 character followed by one of
a set of characters (as in the 'E' command).
Therefore 'PW' is incons~stent since only 'W' ·(or
nothing) may follow.
The '===' command also falls
into this category.
Some other technique for local
radix change.should be implemented.

We. ne.ve.Jt elaimed TECO wcu c.oM.lo.:t(~nL ':tJr.acLlU,onal' and
'cJt.yp:ti..c.' might be. bdte/t adje.c.tivel>. - Ed.
·
··- 5.

The 'F ' command should not be disallowed. 'F'
should-be generally allowed as a preface to the
search commands (as with'@' and 1 : 1 ) .

The -10 pe.opf.e. -6 e.em :t.o d1:6ag1i e..e and /.)O do .the -11 imple.me.ntoM. The. -11 people c.onvinc.e.d -the. -8 pe.ople. :that the.
c.ommand WM M ele-6-6, -60 F WM Jte.move.d nhom OS/ 8 TECO.
Al'->o, the. p!tei> e.nc.e o 6 -the.-FR c.ommavid on :t.he. PVP-11 would
me.an :t.ha.t F c.oul..dn.' t bec.ome a gen.vi.al modi6,i,Vt. It appe.aJL,6
that F .l6 he.aclin.g the .001ne. way cu E.
- Ed.
6.

The use of ' : ' in the ' : G' , ' : Q' , ' : : ' , .and ' : ='
commands is inconsistent. As we all know, col"on
means "try to perform this function; if you fail,
don't bomb out; let me know if it succeeded or not".
The addition of ':ER' and ': [' is quite welcome!
The functions provided by the ':G', ':Q', ':=',
and '::' commands are very-useful but some other
syntax should be defined.
·

Wha.:t do you .'-'>u.ggut? The. PVP-11 pe.ople. -6ee.m to be. :tJr.e.a..t,[ng
M a gerie.tc.al pWl..poM~. modJ...6-{.vc.. wYU.c.h modi6,lu a c.ommavi.d to a
. J.>imil. a/c.., bttt .6.U..ghtty d,i,6 t}eJr. enx, c. omman.d. - Ed.
·
7.

The CTRL/V and CTRL/W commands should be.implemented
in TEC0-11 as in TOPS-1~ TECO V23.

The. -11 pe.op:e.e don't .6e.e.m to c.Me. too muc.h 60ft c.a/.\e c. on:tn.ol J.>btc.e.
mM.t o 6 PEC '.6 ne.t.o teJunin.w -5uppotL.-t £.owe.Jc c.a-0 e.. - Ed.
11

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN OS/8 TECO V4 and VS:
Features added to OS/8 TECO for

TOPS-1~

TECO compatibility:

(i)

New conditionals "T, "S, "F, and "U added.

(ii)

3-ch~racter error message codes implemented
along with short one-line English explanations.
Error message format controlled by EH flag.
3EH nqt implemented; 2EH works only on systems
with at least 16K of memory.

(iii)

= and '

(iv)

P command never creates form feeds that weren't

commands return signed results
(decimal radix only).·

initially present.
(V)

F is no longer a modifier. Now it must:be followed
by an S or an N, or an error message results.
[In TECO V4, F was a command which .affected the
·action of a subsequent, but not necessarily
adjacent, search command.]

(vi)

Except.on a PDP-12, the W command now gives an
error message.
[In V4, the W command was
ignored.]

Case flagging implemented, controll~d bi EU flag.
<vii>
(viii) == command implemented (types in octal} ~
(ix)

tN end-of-file flag implemented.

(x)

Image mode typeout permitted via use of lET
'command.

. (xi)

Vertical tab and form feed are now end-of-line
terminators (in addition to line feed).

(xii}

The tK command now results in an error ~essagee
[This command was ignored in V4.)

(xiii) A negative or ~ iteration count causes the ·
iteration to be skipped .
. (xiv)

It is now an error to do an EB on a .BK file.

Features added to OS/8 TECO for PDP-11 TECO compatibility:
(xv)

New conditional·s "R, "<, and

(xvi)

If no iteration count- is specified to an
iteration, the count is now truly infinite.
(In V4, the default iteration count was 4~96.)

> added.

(xvii) ntT command implemented.
(xviii)

:= and :== commands implemented.

{xix)

@ modifier allowed on ER, EW and EB commands.

(xx)

EK command implemented.

(xxi)

:G command implemented.
12

(xxii) Y and
protection installed.
These commands
abort if the text buffer is not empty and an
output file. is open.
Unfortunately, this
protection can not be removed by the ED flag.

(xxiii) Command level scope editing implemented.
(xxiv)

tc typed during macro execution now returns
control to TECO.
Typing tc to TECO's *
returns control to OS/8.

(xxv)

Echoing to tT input can be suppressed via
bit 8 {representing 8) in the ET flag •

.Commands removed from OS/8 TECO to improve compatibility
with other TECO implementations:
(xxvi)

tR removed {same as FS).
0

(xxvii)

A and "B removed (no longer necessary now
that 13-bit arithmetic precision supported) .

(xxviii)

+z removed (unnecessary conuuand which conflicts
with TOPS-1~ TECO.)

(xxix)

tV changed to EO.

(xxx)

tW .c~anged to W.

tV and tW were changed ~o resolve incompatibility
with TOPS-1.0 TECOw Although it was felt that TOPS-1%
was the culprit {they implemented tv and tW long after
OS/B's use was established), the TOPS-1.0 use is·more
consis.tent with other case control commands and fewer
macros would have to be modified if OS/8 changed.
{xxx~)

was removed because the PDP-11 people
complained about its impracticality.
[They seem to have changed their minds; and
it seems that F wjll probably appe~f ln
V29 of TEC0-11.]
.

New features added to OS/8 TECO:
(xxxii)

Ari thrnetic precision ha·s been improved so that
range of signed numbers is now -4095 to +4%95
(used to be.-2~47 to +2~47).

(xxxiii) An error message is generated if a numeric
a:r-gument is specified to a Y con.mand.
(xxxiv)

A CTRL/S typed during output will freeze the

output nntil a crrRL/Q is typed.
(xxxv)

The EGtext$ command was implemented.
It is
the samE.. as the EG$ command but causes the
specified text to bP passed to OS/8 to be
executed as a KBM or CCL conunand.

MACROs AVAILABLE FROM DECUS
Readers are urged to submit useful TECO macros to the
DECUS library. Submissions should be made through the
usual channels. There is currently no TECO language
category so the program or macro should be sub~itted
under the category determined by the machine or operating
system upon which development was performed. .Be sure to
specify in the abstract that the source language is TECO
and specify which other operating systems it will run on.
Currently Available:
DECUS 11-288 (RT-11 TECO V24) .
This submission contains a few macros which may
be of some interest to non-RT-11 TECO users.
A few of the macros conwined therein are summarized
below:
~
INSERT

allows immediate-mode editing on VTll
or VS6~ display

EDIT

loads up INSERT and other macros and
remembers the filename used by its
previous invocation
(useful on operating
systems where the system does not
'remember' the argument on the last
. TECO command)

LOCAL

takes a MACR0-11 assembly language sourc·..
program and puts the local symbols in ea'
local symbol block into numerical order

SORT

sorts lines of text in the text buff er
(using a key). Slow but effective.

TECO TECHNIQUES
·This column will cover interesting tricks or techniques
which readers would like to share with others.
I was recently confronted with the problem of removing all
the spaces from an exceedingly large file (several hundred
thousand characters and no form feeds) . The straightforward
solution: <N $;-D> would take too long to be practical
since each -D would cause all the characters above the
current.one to shift down.
The following solution was practical:
TECO filename
.
*I<FN $ 27I$ ~I$ 27I$ I;>EX$
TECO filename
*EX$$

~XA ~K

MA$$

[continued page 17)
14

COMPATIBILITY CORNER

by Stanley Rabinowitz

On 24-July-1975; I did a compatibility study of the
various TEco·•s generally available around DEC (TOPS-1$ TECO,
OS/8 ·TECO, and TEC0-11) . The conclusions reached were as
follows:
Total compatibility

51 commands

Subset compatibility

34 commands

Slight incompatibility

26 .commands

Major incompatibility

6 commands

We held various compatibility meE~tings amongst the TECO
implementors and reached many conclusions, as well as
several standoffs. Our main problem was that we could not
find anyone in -1~ land at that time (or now) who would
commit to making changes in TECO. However, my hopes are
still bigh.
If anyone from -1~ land is reading this and
wouLd lik~ to resume compatibil~ty talks with the -8 and -ll
worlds, please get in touch with me.
Looking over the situation today, I find that there
has been· some improvements.
There are now 58 commands
that are totally compatible amongst all DEC TECOs and only
5 commands that exhibit gross incompatibilities. [The major
incompatibility that was fixed up was the incompatible use
of II A which the PDP-8 world recently remo~red.] ·.
The following 5 comm~nds behave radically different
on various TECO implementations and users are urged to avoid
these commands whenever possible (because eventually they
might change) :
1)

This is a case control conunand on the .-1$,
a version number command on the -11,
and unused on the -8.

This· is a case control command on the -1,0,
a scope control command on the -11,.
and unused on the -8.

ntW

This is a case control command on the -1$,
a scope control commap~ on the -11,
and unused on the -8.

m n

(Space operator)
When used between digits, this is the same as m+n
on the -1~, but on the ··8 and ~-11, the space is
ignored.

This is an I/O close command on the -10,
~eturns ~ value on the ~11 (number of characters
used by Q-register storage),
and unused on the -8.
·
15

I make the following personal recommendations concerning
how to clear up.these 5 incompatibilities:
a)

TEC0-11 should change Watch command (scope control)
from tw to W.

TEC0-11 should change version number command from
to EO.

TOPS-1,0 should ignore spaces between digits;

All TECOs should drop use of tz command.

I have already modified OS/8 TECO (VS)
recommendations.
·

to conform to these

At previous DECUS symposia, I have distributed a
memo, entitled TECISS.TXT which lists 35 compatibility
issues along with the pros and cons associ~ted with
various proposals for ironing out these differences.
I don't have the time to discuss these all in this column,
so I will just list the titles of these issues.
I will
discuss them in future columns in more detail.
(Note that
some of these issues have already been solved.)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6 ..
7.
8.

9.
1,0.
. 11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
2fL
21.
22.

23.
24.
25.

Implementation dependent date
Implementation dependent time
Incompatible form feed command
Radix control problem
Obsolete use of tR
Incompatible tv command
Incompatible tW command
Incompatible 1·Z command
Space problem
Incompatible "A command
Definition of alphanumeric character
Generalization of % command
Unspecified repeat counts for iterations
= problem
Generalized nA command
Location of @
Filespecs treated as text
EH value is implementation dependent
ET value is implementatiorr~ependent
Closing of files with EW
Required altrnode on nI
Passing values through macros
Negative arguments to searches
Strange W command
Alpha and numeric Q-registers

26.
27.
28.
29.
3~.

31.
32.
33.
34.
35.

Assumed ; after searches in iterations
Concatenated commands which return values
Checking for erroneous number of arguments
End-of-line 6haract~r
Echoing of bell
·
*Z command is @
on PDP-8
Vertical tab conunand
Partial error reporting with ?
Assumed : modifier for searches in iterations
F modifier on PDP-8

BUG IN TEC0-11:
The "V and "W conditional commands in TEC0-11 V28 are
implemented in the reverse manner from TOPS-1~ TECO.
Presumably,. this· is a .bug in TEC0-11 and will be fixed
in V29. The traditional (TOPS-1~) meaning for these
commands is as follows:
n"Vcmds'

If n is the ASCII code for a lower-case alphabetic character, execute the commands specified.

p"Wcmds·'

If n·is the ASCII code for an upper-case
alphabetic character, execute t.he commands
specified.
__________ ....

____ _

Users who discover other incompatibilities between existing
TECO implementations should send them· to me, so that I ca1~
report them in future newsletters.
In that manner, ·other
TECO users can oe made aware of the~se problems and can avoid
using incompatible comrnands in any TECO macros that they
intend to transport across operating systems.

TECO TECHNIQUES (continued from page 14)
This procedure creates a macro which replaces all b]~hks
with nulls (using an FN comma.nd which is very fast since
no characters have to shuffle down) . A second pass through
TECO then removes all the nulls.