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AV-D53GA-TK

March 1979

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Document:	TECO SIG Moby Munger 2 197903
Order Number:	AV-D53GA-TK
Revision:	000
Pages:	55
Original Filename:	http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/teco/TECO_SIG_Moby_Munger_2_197903.pdf

OCR Text

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Mo
MUNGER
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-•

March 1979

Issue #2

Contributions and correspondence should be sent to the
editor:
·
Stanley Rabinowit~
6 Country Club Lane

Merrimack, NH 03054
or to

TECO SIG
c/o DECUS, MR2-3/E55
One Iron Way
Marlboro, MA 01752

Camera ready copy is preferred but scribblings on the side
of a napkin will be accepted.
Ready-to-use material should
be 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 clean, legible,
sufficiently dark copy for printing. Material prepared on
electrostatic printers (e.g. Versatec printers, Xerox
machines, etc.) are often unsuitable for photographic
reproduction.
·
Readers ar~ urged to submit articles, techniques, not~s,
hacks, ideas, comments, and bug reports to the Moby Munger
for publication.
This publication will publish on a more
regular basis if more readers will submit material.
The newsletter editor prefers camera ready copy, but he will
ictype material submitted that is not in the appropriate
form if it is worthy enough. Machine-readable copy is also
acceptable if the margins are the right size. TECO programs
considerably over 100 characters in length should be sent
in machine-readable form (if riot camera-ready) ii1 order
to preserve accuracy during the publication cycle.

© 1979, DECUS
It is a~sumed that all articles s.ubmittf.id to the wirnr of this n{'JIWslett~r are with the authors' permission to publish in lllny DECUS publication.
Th1t articles are the responsibility of thi! ;:.uthor11 and, therefor01, DECUS, Digital Equipment Corporation, and tho editor iinumt no responsibility or liability for articl1rs or information app~rin.g in the dowmant.

Page 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
SIG News
Notes from RT-11
Note on·vT52 Support
Notes from V.AX
Problem with CTRL/C
Problem with TECO.TEC
Notes from OS/8
Index to published patches
Known restrictions
.Corrections to OS/8 Handbook update
WILD.TEC ·
New TECO for OS/8
Preview of VTEDIT
Notes from TOPS-1~
Index to TECO revisions
Miscellaneous TECO bugs
Notes from RSX
Fixing RUNOFF files
Bug with P and full buffer
Notes from RSTS/E
Problem of the Month
Comments on *Z
Beginner's Column
Differences between TEC0-11 V29 and V28
Differences between TEC0-11 V3~ and V29
Differences between TOPS-1~ TECO V24 and V23B
TECO documentation available from DEC
Errors in TECO reference card
Editorial - TECO vs. TV
. Historical Department
Differences between TOPS-1~ TECO V23B ' V23A
Differences between TOPS-1~ TECO V23A & V23
Oif ferences between TEC0-11 V27 and V24
Relative advantages and disadvantages of KED/TECO
Survey of TECOs
c;.··· ~·
Harvard TECO
BB&N TECO
CCA TECO
WPI TECO
TECA
-Stevens TECO
Stevens/Texas TECO
Questions and Answers
A note on the EN command
Macro of the Month
Compatibility Corner
Issues 1-3~
Future issues
TECO Techniques
TECO related DECUS submissions
TECOs available from DECUS
Bugs in-TEC0-11
VTEDIT for TEC0-11 Keypad layout

3
4
4
4
4
4
5
5
6
7

7
9
9
l~
l~

12
13
13
13
14
15
16
16
17
18
19
2~
2~

21
22
22
22

22
23
27
27
29
3~

31
32
33
35
36
37
39
4~
4~

52
52
53
54
54
54

Page 3

SIG NEWS
The TECO SIG (Special Interest Group) has been quite active
during the last year.
Perhaps our best accomplishment was
the breation of a TECO reference card.
This pocket guide
is in three colors and covers all TECO's available from DEC.
The reference card is now available from the SDC (Software
Distribution Center) .
Its order number is AV-D53,0A-TK.
We have held sessions at each MINI/MIDI DECUS symposium
since the SIG's creation.
Our TECO Tutorials (held at each
'symposium) have always greeted large audiences (standing room
only).
·
At the Spring '79 Symposium, we hope to bring down several
new versions of TECO for distribution.
(Media will most likely
be MAGtape and DECtape.)
It is hoped that we will have
TECO~ll ·version 34 available for RSX, VAX, and RSTS.
Two new
TECO's, one for OS/8 and one for TOPS-1,0 will be available
(hopefully).
These versions have been written at the prompting
of the SIG and should be compatible with TEC0-11. · Mo~e news
about these versions of TECO will be given in the next issue
of the Moby Munger.
There will be at least one TECO paper ·given at the Spring
.Symposium.
There is also a Birds of a Feather Session scheduled, so
users are urged to prepare small talk~ to b"e given there.
If you are not already a member of the TECO SIG, send your
request for membership (it's free) to
DECUS
MR2-3/E55
One Iron Way
Marlboro, Ml\ 01752
The Moby Munger is published sporadically by the TECO SIG.
Articles are needed. We especially need macros of interest.
Also, anyone interested in helping out with SIG administrative
work should write to the TECO SIG, c/o DECUS at the above
address.
We need someone to help catalog and solicit and
review TECO submissions to the DECUS program library and we
need someone to help organiz~ activities at and solicit papers
for DECOS symposia.
The SIG would also appreciate hearing information about other
versions of TECO available. Also, we coordinate bug reporting
and bug fixing for various versions of TECO that are not off icially supported by DEC.
Send all bug reports and other
conunents or suggestions to the TECO. SIG, c/o DECUS or to the
editor.

NOTES FROM RT-11
RT-ll.V3B included TEC0-11 (version 28) as an unsupported
product. Users of that v~rsion of TECO should be warned that
later versions of TEC0-11 have made some ~hanges that may
affect existing macros. The CTRL/W window command was changed
to W and the Qq command no longer throws away any numeric
argument. Users should plan ahead to the time that a later
version of TEC0-11 is available for RT-11.
(Some users may
have received version 29 at a DECUS symposium.) ·
Current plans are that version 34 of TEC0-11 will be released
with version 4 of RT-11. That release is currently scheduled
for early in 198~. The delay ~s because the TECO maintainers
are too ·busy with the RT-11 release to find time to upgrade
TECO.
If any reader who is a user of RT-11 would like to volunteer
to upgrade TEC0-11 for RT-11, send your name and qualifications
in to the TECO SIG (c/o DECUS) . The lucky winner will receive
the source of the RT-11 TECO I/O module along with the new
I/O interface spec and an OBJ of the main TECO kernel.
NOTE ON VT52 SUPPORT
Users trying to use the VT52 support macro under CTS-3~~ or
the FB version of .Rr-11 must be aware that they must first
issue the command
SET TT: NOCRLF
to the operating system.

NOTES FROM VAX
Version 29 of TEC0-11 was included with the first VAX-11/780
release as an unsupported product. The manual is available
from DECUS (DECUS-11-35~) . We have been using versiQ~ 33
.in-house at DEC for quite a while now and it seems v~ry solid.
We hope to be able to submit this version to the DECUS library
very shortly.
PROBLEM WITH CTRL/C
The CTRL/C immediate action command (in VAX TECO v29) does not
properly get you out of TECO. Temporarily, you can use the
CTRL/Y command to abort TECO, but this alternative has the
disadvantage that you.may be left with an unwanted ~-length
file if you had a file open when you aborted. The way you
can avoid this is to type EK$$ before doing the CTRL/Y, or by
using the tztztz command. CTRL/C has been fixed in v33.
PROBLEM WITH TECO.TEC
TECO.TEC will not work properly if you are using subdirectories under VAX. This problem has been fixed and a
new TECO.TEC has been created and tested and hopefully will
shortly be available from the DECUS program library.

Page 5

NOTES FROM OS/8
TECO is a supported product running under the OS/8 operating
system.
Version 5 was released with OS/8 V3D (as part of the
exten~ion kit).
This version will also run under OS/78,
although it will not run properly while a symbiont is running;
The PDP-8 group at DEC has no plans to re-release TECO in the
near future.
INDEX TO PUBLISHED PATCHES:
seq.
Number

DSN
issue

Title/Description

31.2,0.,0'1 Mar 78

CHANGING 'fHE DEFAULT EU VALUE
Gives an optional patch to change
the initial value of the EU flag.

31. 2,0' ~ ,0'2 ·Mar 7 8

CHANGING THE DEFAUL'r EH VALUE
Gives an optional patch to change
the initial value of the EH- flag.

31.2,0' . .03 Mar 78

REMOVING YANK PRO'I1ECTION
Gives an optional patch for users who
don't like Yank protection.
This
·causes the Y and . commands to always work.

31.2,0 . .04 Mar 78

SCOPE SUPPORT FOR VT~S USERS
Gives an optional pate~ to allow command
line scope editing to work from VT,05
terminals.

31.2,0.,05 Mar 78

PROBLEM WITH AY COMMAND
Fixes bug: Y command sometimes aborts
·with ?NYA error (such as after an A
command) even though no numeriq argument is specified.

31.2.0 . .06 Mar 78

CONDITIONALS INSIDE ITERATIONS
Fixes bug having to do with nesting
of conditionals and iterations.

31.2,0 . .07 Mar 78

ECHOING OF WARNING BELLS
Fixes TECO so that the warning you get
when about to run out of command line
space consists only of a bell ring and
no accompanying ""'G" (Caret-G) typeout.

31.2,0.,08 May 78

CTRL/U SOMETIMES FAILS AFTER *
Fixes many bugs having to do with scope
editing and typing rubouts and CTRL/U's
after a * has been entered into corrunand
string.

31.2.0.1.0 May 78

MULTIPLYING BY .0 IN TECO
Fixes bug: n*.0 didn't always return ,0.

31.2,0.11 May 78

Q-REGISTERS DON'T WORK IN BK
Fixes bug.
Enable·s Q-Register commands
to work properly on 8K machines~

Seq.
Number

DSN
issue

Title/Description

31 .. 2,0.12 May 78

CAN'T SKIP OVER A "W"
Fixes bug: While scanning for a ',
TECO would blow up if it encounters
a W command or a PW command.

31.2,0.13 Jul 78

UNSPECIFIED ITERATIONS AFTER INSERTS
Fixes bug. An iteration with an unspecified iteration count would sometimes act as if the iteratiori count
was ,0 (thereby skipping the iteration) .
For example, IA$< .•. > exhibits this
behavior.

31.2,0.14 Aug/Sep 78

21.,03.,01 ·May 78

NEW FEATURES IN TECO VS
Describes the complete set of differences between TECO V4 and VS.

DEFAULT EXTENSIONS TO TECO
Gives an optional patch to V3D CCL
to cause the TECO and MAKE commands
to use .MAC as the default estension
rather than .PAL

KNOWN RESTRICTIONS:
The follQwing bugs are known to exist in OS/8 TECO and should
be considered to be permanent restrictions . . Ther~ are no plans
now or i·n the future to fix these bugs.1. No error message is given· if the nI command is not
followed by an ALTMODE.
Use of such a construct inside
a conditional will cause unpredictable results.
Way aftound:

alway-0 6ollow nI c.ommand by an altmode.

2. If an ALTMODE is typed into TECO in response to a·tT command,
TECO will return the ASCII code for a dollar sign (decimal
36) rather than the correct decimal 27.
Way a1tound: Tu1tn ec.ho
w el6 when ec.ho ).,,6 o 66.

on 6 6,{,Jt-6t.

Thl-6 bug doeo not man).,6eot

3. A large T or X command will abort with the ?FUL error if
the output device is nearly full.
Way Mound: ,{,,6).)ue_ T oft X c.ommand in !.lmail.e!t p).,ec.eo oft ex.A.;t TECO, 6ftee
up -6pac.e on output dev).,c.e and then Jteowne ecli;t)_ng.

4. The CTRL/S special command· (freezes type-out) turns off
the window display on a PDP-12.
Way aJwund: AfiteJt typ).,ng CTRL/Q, the w).,ndow fuplay Jteowneo.

S. Typing CTRL/C while I/O is going on to a non-system device
may cause TECO to return to dot rather than to prompt.
Way aJLound: Avo).,d typing CTRL/C whJ...R..e J.>uc.h I/0 ).,,6 ).,n p1wg1teoJ.>.
6. TECO will die if while running under BATCH in 12K or 16K
machines, TECO attempts to read from BAT: .
Way aftound: Avo).,d uJ.>e 06 BAT: handle.ft on J.>uc.h c.on.6).,guJtat).,onJ.>.

Page 7
CORRECTIONS TO OS/8
HANDBOOK UPDATE..
.
The OS/8 Handbook Update (D~C-Sff-OSHBA-A-DN4) contains much
new information about TECO. New features of TECO' version 5
are reported. There are a number of errors in table 2-45
(on page 24) which describes TECO's error messages.
Specifically, the one-line error message for some errors
is incorrect. The error code and corrected message appear
below:
Error

Message

?BNI

> not in iteration

?FUL

Output command would have overflowed output device

?NFO

No File for Output

"?SNI

; Not in an Iteration

'?XAB

Execution Aborted by CTRL/C

Also, it should be· noted that each occurrence of X* in the
error message listing should really be "x" . This represents
the fact that TECO will substitute the character in error for
"x". For example, the command FA will produce the error
message: ?IFC Illegal Character "1\" after F .
WILD.'rEC
The ·program WILD.TEC was di~tributed with the OS/8 TECO
·material that was handed out at the last DECUS meeting.
For those of you who did not get it, it is reprinted on the
following page.
It is useful only with the new CCL that is
distributed with the latest version of OS/78.
(That is the
CCL that allows multiple-character switches.)
That CCL will
'run under OS/8 as well as OS/78 and is highly recomm~nded for
use by all OS/8 users.
It has the special feature that if a
COMPILE, PAL, MACRO, or EXECUTE command is issued with a
· filespec that contains wildcards, then SYS:TECO.TEC is invoked passing it the user's command string in the text buffer.
WILD.TEC parses the command and creates the appropriate BATCH
stream to properly execute the command. Thus, -you ca.n .type
.MAC *.MAC
and OS/8 will assemble all files with a .MA extension on DSK:.
Similarly, the co11U11and
.COMPILE ABC???.FT
will assemble all FORTRAN programs whose names begin with the
letters ABC.
If you don't have the new CCL, the above
command can be issue by typing MUNG WILD,COMPILE ABC???.FT

Page 8

SYSTEM MACRO TO

~A~DLE

0AU9 Qq .. •""' '' "N

. . ·•·r·"E J D HT

WILD CARDSl
!Get first character i~ bufferl
1If it is AT, type messaQe.fo11owing1
11o11owed by a CR/LF!
!ar"'ld e>citl

lif first character is not ~T or "11
ltnen assume a com~and li~el
lia fn tke buffer,l
!Store tho verb in Q•reg A1
JI

<J Ls ... $ , ,, • 1u1sAs$
<JL.S/!, ,! -1u 1 s·s$
L. ZR 0XB 0LK

$
$

1Surrou~d the fi1esoecs by CR/L.Fsl
RQ1,.x1 Qt,,K 0L2RG1>
lMove all • switches to front!
R Q 1 , • x 1 Q 1 , K P,I L 2RG1 >
1 M0 v e a 1 , I 8 w~ t.e hes t 0 f r 0 n t '
!Get all switches into Q•reg 81
lj

!JOB

IR. W.IL.D, DI<S

ICreete BATCH Pr.efeeel

2R I/F=1

JNG WILD,"$ GA I"$ GB
SEND

PW EF HK
SUBMIT WILD.TM/T/H$ '
~ILD,TMP$

11••n "E
) FS" $ $
' 0K HXf.3. t-.K

OLD,DI$Y

ZJ •3K
~·ANo

!Create BATCH eniloql
!Put created BATCH J~b i~ WILD.TMP!
lEKeeute t~e BATCH Job1
!If the first character is a " 1
lthen de1ete it & change matching " to soeee1
IPlace pre•text ;~ Q•reg A and post•text iM Bl
!Read in direeto~v 11sti~g of f~les thet matchedl
!delete garbage at beginn;ng a~d eMdl

such files

2R 0XC GB 0L I.$ GA
.I,MUNG WI~D,.T$ GC I

1Give error message if no files remaining!
lRemov•s soeees from files~eesl
!Create COMPILE FILE

comma~dl

LCreate TYPE co~mandl
lRePeet, for eGeh file~Peel
~JOB

ING WIL.o,··r$GAI1

rI,R FOTP

:LO,DI,WILD.TM,W!LD,bI/D
lD

illD,BI$ PW EF HK
:usMIT WILD/T/H$

!Put BATCH template erou~d commands!
!Create second BATCH Jobi
!Execute it1

Page 9
NEW TECO FOR OS/8
A new TECO for OS/8 will shortly be submitted to the DECUS
program library.
It is called TEC0-8 and .is based on DEC's
OS/8 TECO VS.
It was written by Stan Rabinowitz and is
upward compatible with DEC's TECO.
It is written in MACREL
and contains many new extensions to DEC's TECO, mostly
compatible with TEC0-11. Copies will be available at the
next symposium.
Of most interest is the fact that it contains VT support
(written by Jim Roth) . This support is compatible with
TECO-ll's VT support and allows maintaining a window into the
text buffer.on the- screen of a VT~5, VT52, or VTl~~Also of interest is TECO.IN! and TECO.TEC support, read with
no wait, CTRL/C trapping, War and Peace Error Message Mode
(3EH), type~ahead, V, "A and "D, and much much more. More
details will appear in the next Moby Munger. An advance
articl~ appears on pages 7-1~ of the January 1979 issue of
The 12-Bi~ SIG Newsletter (issue #32).

PREVIEW OF VTEDIT
With the .above-planned release of TEC0-8 will be a macro
called VTEDIT.TEC • It is compatible with TECO-ll's VTEDIT
that is a superset 6f the VT52.TEC ma9ro. This macro turns
TECO into a true scope editor. The buffer is permanently
displayed on the scope of the CRT. Typing a character
immed;i.ately enters it into the buffer and.updates the screen.
Typing special keys and keys on the VT52 keypad cause special
actions to occur. A summary of the keypad layout follows:
(See page 54 for corresponding layout for the -11 version)
BLUE
Save
Text•

RED

GREY

TECO
command*

Paste
text

Upln
column•

v
Down In
column•

Open
Line•

Page•

Quote•

4
Up
Line•
1
Top of

page•

Delete
char•

Delete
te>ct

"C.
"D.
"K . .
"U.
"Z ~ . .
BKSP . .
DELETE .
ESCESC.

•

Bottom
of page

St~1rt

Curaor

of llne

l&ft*

Down llne•
ABC, MH3, HJ, JR -

•

Curo or
right*

Search
again"'

ENTER

arg•
PK. SR OOll>il08"H

Return to TECO
Kill rest of line•
Kill line"'
Kill start of line
Return to TECO
Go to end of line*
Delete previous character"'
Repeat RED-ke:y command"'

All •commands take an optional argument as:
ESC number

Page 1,0

NOTES FROM TOPS-10
TECO is a supported product running under the TOPS-1~
operating system. The latest release is version 24(2¢2)
which was released in March of 1977.
This version of TECO is pretty solid, however it does not
contain any scope support, nor has this TECO kept pace with
the other TECO's around DEC. For these reasons, mahy
DECSYSTEM-1¢ users are running version~ of TECO written at
places other than DEC.
The TECO SIG hopes to remedy this situation shortly by
submit~ing to DECUS a new version of TECO for TOPS-1,0 that
will be compatible with TECO~ll and will have scope support.
·This version is being worked on by Andy Nourse and we hope
to have it available from the DECUS program library very
shortly now. Copies should be available by the next -1¢
DECUS symposium.
Bug reports for DEC's TECO should be submitted on SPRs in
the usual manner. Fixes are published perioaically in the
Software Dispatch. Following is a complete summary of all
published corrections to TECO since the release of version 24
(edit 2¢2):
Index to TECO Revisions
Edit SPR-no./
date
2¢3 1,0-23364

PCO-no.
-¢51

TECO does not generate correct line
sequence numbers when the /GENLSN
switch is given as part of an
EB command

-¢52

TECO generates erroneous errors such
as ?FNF if the trace feature
(? command) is turned on.

-,053

A ?NNQ error is given when t~ying to
access a Q-register with a Q command
after an illegal argument to a U
command has been given.

-,054

Successful searches within iterations
do not return a value of -1.
EdUotcial note: TOPS-10 W.,Vl.J.> Me ln ·6ofL a
big J.>lwc.k when they in6ta.£1. thi-6 6ix.
TECO hM been WofLking 'inc.oMec:tly' fio!L the
7 yea!L-6 that I have been w.,ing it and a.Lt
TECO p!LogfLa.mmeM know that -6 eMc..he-6 do not
ILUWl.n value..-6 unfeM they afte c.oton morif._6,[ed.
The p!Lobfc.m L6 th.at the doc.wnenta.tion ha.-6
been WfLong a.Lt the..-6 e yea!L-6. · TEC0-11 made the
above c.ha.nge -6 eveJr.a.f veJr-OioM ago and
immediately got £.o:t6 o ~ 6£.ac.I<. 6Jwm a.Lt thei!L
U.6eM, J. >o they c.ha.n.ged bac.k.
The algo!Lithm
6oun.d moJ.>t w.,e_t)uf i-6 that a J..>eMc.h in an
U:Vtation ac.;t).) M i6 it wvie c.olon modiQied
i6 -lt L6 inime.d-La-tely 6oUowed by a .6em,i.c.ofon.

l~-Aug-77

2~4

1¢-235¢8
14-Sep-77

2¢5

1,0-21631
15-Sep-77

21~

1,0-21632
14-0ct-77

Description of bug fixed

Page 11
Index to TECO Revisions (canto)
Ed1' t SPR-no./
date

PCO-no.

2%6

none
-,055
17-0ct-77

2%7

none

Des9r1p~1on
' t'
o-f b ug f'ixe d
MACRO version 53 gives an· error
when TECO is compiled.

-,056·

TECO gets an illegal memory reference
if it is loaded with DDT and a command
line of 9,0 characters is entered.

-,057

28-0ct-77

TECO gets an illegal memory reference
when doing an nXq command if
.. > 262114~

212

lS-21417 -.058
,08-Nov-77

The *q every once in a while puts
garbage in Q-register q.

213

1%-21561 -%59
29-Nov-77

The tEL match control construct fails
to recognize end-of-buffer as a match.

214

1,0-22762

-~6,0

TECO is not able to find th~ file that
is to be edited when FTSFD is turned
off.

-,061

Successive searches forget exact case
specifications. For example, the
command SatVB$ causes the search to
proceed using exact case mode since
case control constructs are present.
A subsequent 8$ conunand uses the preceding search argument, but forgets to
use exact case mode.
This patch causes
the exact mode internal flag to be reset only when an explicit search string
is given.

-,062

If the Blst character of a search
pattern specification is a CTRI,/Q or
CTRL/R, the first word of the
Q-Register stack gets wiped.

-~63

Standard page marks are not 9iven in
line sequence mode.

17-0ct-77
211

1,0-22148

15-Dec-77
215

1,0-24918
17-Feb-78

216

1,0-25563
19-Apr-78

22,0

1,0-25665
,01-May-78

221

1,0-25395 -,064
,02-Jun-78

TECO gets confused by garbage after
a filespec when processing CCL.

222

1,0-25659
17-Jul-78

No error is given if the match control
construct CTRL/t occurs at the end of
a search string. This patch creates
the new error message ?MCO (Missing
Character Operand) .

223

1,0-25648 -,066
·18-Jul-78

StE[A,tES] will match A and any tabs
or spaces following A.

224

none
-,067
,05-Sep-78

This edit improves the.comments in
the source of TECO.

-,065

Page 12
Index to TECO Revisions (cont.)
Edit

SPR-no./
date

PCO-no.

Description of bug fixed

22~3

1,0-26761

-,068

The commands MAKE FILE.EXT and
TECO FILE.EXT lose the third character of the extension.
(Edit 221
broke the conunand scanner.)

12-0ct-78
226

1,0-26914 -,069
2,0-0ct-78

TECO high segment is too big.

227

1,0-27219

? sometimes doesn't work after an
erroneous *q cornmand.
Rubout doesn't
work after a *q and *q goes into
affect after a single ALTmode instead
of after two ALTMODEs.
EcU:tofi.la..l c.omme.n..t: I be.Lle.ve. that. *q -l6 an

-,07,0

14-Dec-78

imme.cUa..te. ac..:tfon c.ommand and J.>hot.Ltd go in.to
.at)fie.c.t with.ou;t. any altmode.J.> being ne.c.e.J.>.oaJr.y.
Note: I have not been able to determine the content 6r purpose
of edit 217 to TECO.
Miscellaneous TECO bugs:
The following bugs were reported to me by a person who wishes
to remain anonymous.
He reported them to DEC in November of
1977 but·DEC refused to answer his SPRs since he was a DEC
employee and not a customer. These bugs apply to v24 of
DEC's TOPS-1,0 TECO:
1. A Fails if buffer is full.
If a file is open for input and you fill up the text
buffer to capacity and then issue an A cornmand, TECO
properly issues the message ?COR - Storage Capacity
Exceeded, and then proceeds to wipe out the text buffer
(sets Z=,0) .
2. Excessive Pops bomb TECO.
If a large number of successive pop commands is given,
for example 5,0,0,0<]q> , TECO aborts with an illegal
memory reference. TECO ought to give a message such as
?CPQ Can't Pop Q-register if the.Q-register push down
stack is empty and a ]q cornmand is issued.
3. Push Down List overflow is fatal to TECO.
The command !A!<OA$$ aborts TECO with a ?PDL OV error
message. TECO ought to be smart enough to catch this
error andgive an error message such as ?PDO.
4. Literal-typeout-mode too General
If the lET command is issued to put TECO into literaltypcout-mode, then many TECO features act strangely.
For example, while editing a conunand string, if you try
to rubout a CTRL/A, TECO retypes the deleted character by
sending a true CTRL/A (rather than an uparrow-A) to the
terminal. Also, the Bell-space immediate action command
retypes the line literally, and error messages such as ?IFC
report erroneous characters literally. This is wrong.
Only TECO typeout should be affected by literal mode (see
section 3.6.4 of the TECO manual).

Page 13
5. TECO fails to recognize ta •
Erroneous results can occur if the CTRL/A command is
used in its uparrow mode within an unsatisfied conditional and ·the "a" following the uparrow is in lower
case.
For ex~mple, the command

~"N<~"Nta text

@ ' > ' $$

produces the ?MAP error message incorrectly.
The above command works if ta is replaced by tA .
6. Null FS·replacements abort command.
The command IABCD$JFSB$tV$T$$ doesn't execute the final
T command since TECO thinks it has seen a double ALTMODE
and· consequently aborts the execution of the conunand
.string after replacing B by the null string.
7. @-modifier to tab confuses TECO.
The TECO documentation fails to specify that the
tab and tI commands may be @-si9n modified.
Such commands
appear to work.
For example, both @+/text/ and @tI/text/
insert +text into the buffer. (+denotes a tab character.)
However, if an @-sign modified tab command appears within
an unsatisfied conditional, TECO gets confused. For
example, the command 2"E@tI/L/'$$ works while the command
2"E@-+/L/' $$ fails giving a ?MP.. P error.
·suggestion: TECO ought to treat @+ as an error.

NOTES FROM RSX
Version 28 of TEC0-11·was released (as an unsupported product)
with versions 3 and 3.1 of RSX-11/M. Version 28 is also in the
DECOS program library.
The order number for the RSX-11/M
version is DECUS-11-333 and the ·order number for the RSX-11/D
version is. DECUS-11-334.
It is expected that TEC0-11 version
34 will shortly be submitted to the DECUS library. The DECUS
order number for the manual is DECUS-11-35~.
~
Fixing RUNOFF files
Output from RSX RUNOFF is in a very strange ASCII format, so that
RUNOFF output can not be conveniently input to SRCCOM. These
problems can be fixed up by passing the .funny file throguh TECO
twice as follows:
TECO f ile/-CR
*EX$$
TECO file
*EX$$
Bug with P and full buffer
If the t~xt buffer is full and does not end with a line-terminator,
and if the form feed flag is not set, and a P command is issued,
TECO will inscr~ an erroneous carriage-reLurn / line-feed at the
;end of the buffer.
This bug is due to inherent RMS problems
and there is no plan to fix this bug in future TEC0-11 releases.

Page 14

NOTES FROM RSTS/E
TECO was relea~ed with RSTS V6C
as an unsupported product.
It has also been distributed at recent DECUS symposia. A new
version will shortly be put into the DECUS program library.
NEW FEATURES FOR V29:
The following new features are part of the version 29 release
and apply only to RSTS:
1. A bug which prev_ented reading of certain RMS files has
been fixed.
2. The EG command has been changed.
EGcommand$

The new format is

@EG/command/

This command is the same as EC, however control returns to
RSTS·and the CCL command specified after the EG corrmand is.
ex~cuted by RSTS.
3. Several new file switches are permitted on file specifications in the ER, EW, and EB commands.
/B+

is the same as the / (with no switch) and means
that you are editing a BASIC PLUS file.

/B2.

is a new switch and means that you are editing a
BASIC PLUS 2 file.
It is the same as the /72
command (see below).

where n is a decimal number. On input, this causes
the trailing &'s (along with all preceding spaces
and tabs) to be·discarded. On output, if a line is
terminated by a carriage-return I line-feed sequence
and the next line does not begin with a digit, then
enough tabs and/or spaces are appended to the line
followed by an & to cause that & to go into column n
of the line.
If this is not possible, then a single
space followed by an & is appended.

4. The new CCL command
TECO f ile2=f ilel
has been implemented.
It reads filel and creates file2.
It is equivalent to the TECO command
ERfilel$EWfile2$Y
5. The TECO start-up file, TECO.TEC, has been modified.
Users who have their own private copies of TECO.TEC should
be aware that it will be invoked with a -1 in Q-register 1.
See elsewhere in this issue for general features of TECO v29
that apply to all TEC0-11 implementations.

Pag·e 15

PROBLEM OF THE MONTH
This column will present interesting and/or unusual problems
for the reader to solve.
Problem 1:

Write a TECO macro, which, when executed,
types out the upper case letters A to z
(in o~der) on the terminal.
Restrictions:
(a)

There must be no other type-out by
this macro.

(b)

The macro must contain only distinct
characters. That is, ·no character may
be.repeated.
(An upper case character
is to be considered different from its
lower case counterpart.)

(c)

The macro must be as short as possible.

For example, the macro
. iABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ$ht
is a 3~ character solution to the problem.
It is far from
minimal. Can you ·cut it down to 15 characters or less?
Solutions should be sent to the e:ditor and must be postmarked
by June 15, 1979.
There are two.classes of competition:
CLASS A: Macro is written in machine-independent (DEC) TECOt
and will run correctly under OS/8, RT-11, RSX-11,
RSTS/E, or TOPS~l~.
CLASS B: Macro is machine dependent.
it will run.
·

Specify on which TECO

Macios will be tested by effectively putting them in
a file called MACRO.TEC, invoking TECO, and executing
the command string ERMACRO.TEC$YHXMHKMM$$
Winners names will be printed in the first issue of the Moby
Munger following the conclusion of this contest.
Solutions and proble~ proposals for future columns should be
sent to the editor: Stanley Rabinowitz, 6 Country Club Lane,
Merrimack, NH 03054.
t Consult TECO reference card for system compatible commands.

page 16
COMMENT_S ON * Z
by Eric
'l~he

Osman

*Z command in TEC0-11 is a real crock because

1) Typing a non-* and then DELETE and then *Z loses.
2) Sometimes you do a long command string, then a few short
command strings later (things like HT, etc.) you realize
the long command string wasn't quite right and you want it
back.
*Z is useless at this point.
My suggestion for definition of *Z command, where "Z" is any
legal Q-register name is:
The *Z command takes the last command string that was
long~r than 15 characters and stores it in Q-register

Notes-:
a) The number 15 is arbitrary, but has proven
in other TECO's.

con~en~ent

b) This definition solves both problems listed above.
c) No conflict with multiplication because * seen with no
pr~ceeding argument means "save last long command string".

BEGINNER'S COLUMN
by Stan Rabinowitz
Selectively making changes to a file
A common editing problem is to change all occurrences of
one string to another in a file.
Although the command
<FNstringl$string2$;> is usually good enough to do this,
this command has the problem that there might be an unusual
occurrence of the stringl that shouldn't be changed.
The
following technique is a typical way of avoiding this
problem.
This conunand string searches for the given stringl
and types out the line containing this string on the terminal.
It then waits for the user .to type a character on the
terminal, if he types "Y", then that means that the stringl
should be replaced by string2.
Typing any other character
means that the stringl should not be replaced in this case.
<Nstringl$;

!Search for string, exit if not found!

1-A

tA
,0TT

!Return the carriage!
!Type the current line!

tA
Change? tA
tT-ttY"E-7Distring2$'
>

!Prompt for decision!
!If yes, replace string!
!a.nd continue!

Page 17

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TEC0-11 V29 AND V2B:
1.

The ntUq$ command was implemented.
It inserts the character whose ASCII code is n into Q-register q.
The
command may be @-sign modified and colon modified (colon
means character append~ to end of Q-register· text) .

Several commands were changed to prevent conflicting with
_DEC's TOPS-1,0 TECO.
tw was changed to W (Window command) .
tv (version number) was changed to EO.

· 4.

The tR (Replace) command was eliminated.
to FS.

was put back in.

It is identical

(The above :two Ue.m~ WeJte nec.u-6Lta;ted by the 6ad tha;t the VEC-6y-6tem10 g!Loup upgitaded the.AA TECO to ve'.!Lf.>-lon 22 wUhout c.on-6uLUng wha;t
the PDP-8 and PDP-11 g!Loup~ We/Le do-lng.)

Vertical tab is now an error (it used to be ignored).

The tv and tw string build constructs_ and the tEV and tEW
match constructs were implemented to be compatible with
DEC's TOPS-1,0 TECO version 23. Also, a bug involving the
"V and "W conditionals was fixed.

·The tt string build construct was eliminated.
Its functionality can be accomplished by the new tv construct.

Some error codes were changed for compatibility reasons.
?ICC became ?IQC and ?IQR became ?IQN.

The :A (append single line to text buffer) command was
implemented.

1,0. An error message is generated if a Y command has a
numeric argument.
(T~ )_/._, a good p!Lo.tec.tlon 6ea.tWLe~ and ,lf) c_ompa.:t-lble w,Uh OS/ 8 TECO. )

11. The bits in the EH flag were shuffled so as not to
conflict with TOPS-1,0 TECO.
The old 3EH is now 4EH.
12. The bits in the ED flag were shuffled around so that now
the flag is bit-encoded~
-lED is now 2ED.
13 .. The <bell><space> and <bell>* commands were modified so
that the first line of the co~nand string will be preceded by an asterisk (representing TECOv.s prompt).
Now, if you are on a scope terminal and rub out a multiline command string back to the first line, the * prompt
that was ~n the screen does not disappear.
Version 29 of TEC0-11 is the version that is documented in the
TECO Reference card available from the SDC. The PDP-11
implementors must be congratulated for their.part in ironing
out incompatibilites between the various TECOs at DEC. The
only item above that may be of some concern· to users is the
change in the window command. Anyone who wrote scope editing
macros.under v28 should change all CTRL/W's to W's in their
macros.

Page 18
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TEC0-11 y29 and V3~:
TEC0-11 has the following new features that were not in V29:
1.

The Qq command may now take an argument. nQq returns
the value of the (n+l)th character in Q-register q.
The argument n must be between~ and the Q-register's
size - 1 .
If n is out of range, then a value of
-1 is returned.
(~Qq returns the first character, etc.)
(Wa1tnlng - thJA new c.ommand c.aMU many ewting macJwJ.> to bJteak.,
bec.auoe many mac.Jto.o Welte a.1.>-6unilng that the. Q c.ommand would fuc.a1td
any aJtgu.ment. It would be a wLo e p1tog1tamming pJtac.tic.e to alway'->
fuc.a.Jtd an unneeded value by t)oUowing it wJ..:th an ALTlltOVE, a
c.omma.nd whic.h Lo gua.Jtanteed to dUc.a.Jtd any aJLgument.)

The 0 command can now build the tag to go to using the
same constructs as the Search and E commands. Specifically,
the tEQq construct can be used.

The EJ command has been implemented. ~EJ returns your
job number and lEJ returns your console keyboard number.
(~ is returned o~ single-user systems~)
(_AdclULona.l EJ c.ommand-6 have been implemented in late.Jt ve.MioM a 6
TEC0-11; thue will be ducJU.bed in the nex;t L6J.>ue 06 the Mo by MungeJt.)

Conditionals now allow an IF-THEN-ELSE construct.
In
addition to the usual form of a conditional, you now
have the new form:
n"X <then-commands> I <else-commands>
If the condition (denoted above by X) is satisfied, then
·the then-commands are executed.
If the condition is not
satisfied, then the else-commands are executed.
(A Jte.a.l advan.c.e in J.>.:tJtuc.tUJted pJtogJtammin.g in. TECO!
ThJA c.omman.d
Lo amazingly uJ.> e6ul. AdclULona.l c.ommand-6 tha,t will mak.e. TECO
p!togJtamm,i.ng moJte. f.>Vwc.tUJted eute. planned 6oJt the. ne.a.Jt 6utUJte.
ll6eJt c.ommenu and J.>uggu.tionJ.> a.Jte alway}., we.R..c.ome.. )

The
~:W

:w· command can be used to return scope characteristics.

returns your scope type. ~ means VT52, 2 means VTl~~'
4 means VT~S with fill, and 6 means VT05 without fill .
. l:W returns the scope's horizontal size.
2:W returns the
scope's vertical size. n,m:W is used to set the m:W
information to n.
(Tw la.1.>,t t)ea.:tUJte '-> eemf.> to be a LL:tfte.
inC:on.J.,Lote.nt with the. fLUt 06 the lan.gu0-ge. )
This version of TEC0-11 has been in use in-house at DEC for
quite a while, so it has gotten extensive testing. However,
it has not yet been made publicly available. Version 34 of
TEC0-11 .will shortly be submitted to DECUS. Watch for more
information. The next issue of the Moby M will contain
details about version 32, 33, and 34. You can lobk forward
to.such obscure cornmands as F',. F<, F>, and hexadecimal radix
mode!

.page 19
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TOPS-1~ TECO V24 and V23B:
DEC's TOPS-1~ TECO version 24 (edit 2~2) has the following
new features that were not in version 23B ·(edit 162):
1.

TECO now allows editing of files protected via the File
Daemon. The File Daemon bit (4~~) of the file protection
is preserved in the new files created.

TECO will now allow ERSATZ devices and SFD~s in arguments
to the MAKE, TECO, ER, EW, and EB commands, as well as
the 11 [ - ] " and· 11 [ , ] 11 constructions.

3...

On. an EB or 'l1ECO command,. TECO will now always put the
new source file where the conunand string specified.
(In version 23B, the new file always went into the user's
area.)

Any time that TECO finds a file on an area other than
the one explicitly specified i.n the command string
(because of scanning up directory paths) , the warning
message %File found in [path]
is printed.

The command MAKE A=B is now pe!rmitted.
It is equivalent
to invoking TECO and giving it the initial command
ERB$EWA$Y$$
An equal sign in a TECO command will be
ignored. Thus TECO A=B is equivalent to TECO A .
Thus, if a MAKE A=B command i~; followed by a TECO <crlf > ,
the right thing will happen (the system will remember the
previous argument, and file A will be edited).
(Onc.e. again the -10 woh.ld wen:t and implemen:ted a fieo.X.U!Le wUhoCLt
.6eung how othe.Jt VEC ope.Jtating .6tJf.>te..m-0 handle the fieatuJLe. OS/8
· ..6olved thl6 pJc..oble,m .6e.veJc..al yeaM pJuoJc.. :t.o :t.he -10 '.6 ).mplemen:tat..lon
by mak.ing the TECO A=B c.ommand ed,[:t. B ~n:to A and only Jc..eme.mbvr. :t.he
aJc..gumen:t up :t.o and no:t. ~nc.lu~ng th'~ "=" -6...lgn. )

The following

d~ficiencies

in V23B were not corrected in V24:

(a) CTRL/C REENTER or EX$$ REENTER sometimes resui ts~· in lost
editing or address checks.
(b) Changing the size of the push down list causes a garbage
collect error (?GCE).
(c) The.value output in the [nK COREl message is not always
correct for KI processors.
Presumably, the following bugs in V23B were fixed:
(i)

TECO couldn't handle magtape with non-standard block
size.

(ii)

?FUL was incorrectly generated if a file on a DECtape
was open for both input ~nd output.

(iii) Output to device NUL: resulted in a superseding warning.
(iv)
?COS error was not detected for EB conunands.

Page 2,0

TECO DOCUMENTATION AVAILABLE.FROM DEC
Since the last issue of the Moby Munger, the following new
TECO documents have become available from DEC:
Order Number

Description

DEC-11-UTECA-A-DNl

UPDATE NOTICE No .. 1 to TEC0-11 User's
Guide
This is an update to the July 1977
copy of the TEC0-11 User's Guide
(DEC-lL-UTECA-A-D) .
It upgrades
appendix F (The index to TECO commands
and special characters) . The original
index had the wrong page numbers.
This document is also a useful.summary
of TEC0-11 commands (version 28).

AV-D53,0A-TK

TECO POCKET GUIDE .
This is a pocket reference card that
covers OS/8 TECO version 5, TEC0-11
version 29, and TOPS-1,0 TECO version 24.
It is extremely detailed. Commands
peculiar to specific implementations
are easy distinguished by a color
coding.

ERRORS IN TECO REFERENCE CARD
A few errors have been noticed in the TECO Pocket Guide
(AV-D53,0A-TK) . These are described below:
l·.. several commands are in black and imply that they exist
in all 3 flavors of rrECO i however, these commands are not
implemented in TEC0-8.
'rhey are:
(a)

(page 1,0)

[q is not in TEC0-8

(b)

(page 11) nES is not in TEC0-8

( c")

(page 12) tEA is not in TEC0-8

Page 16, the graphic for the character whose octal ASCII
code is 174 is vertical bar <I) not close square bracket.

Page 17, note [11] should say "Not in RSTS or RSX . . . . "

Page 17, note [25] should say "TEC0-1,0 allow·s begin of
buffer to match and does not allow., $, or% to match" .

Readers discovering other errors in the card are urged to write
in and inform us so that these errors can be fixed on the next
printing.

Page 21

EDITORIAL

TECO vs. TV
by the Editor

As the reader of this newsletter may noticie - TECO runs
on most DEC operating systems: OS/8, RT-11, RSX-11/D,
RSX-11/M, IAS, VAX, TOPS-1,0, and RSTS/E. A glance at the
larg~ number of black entries in the TECO Reference Card
shows that these TECO's are largely compatible too.
Of notable absence is the DECSYSTEM-2,0. Why doesn't TECO
run on this machine too? Well, in fact it does.
Since
TECO runs under TOPS-1,0, that v~rsion of TECO will run on
the·-2,0 too in -1,0 mode.
However, running TOPS-1,0 TECO v24
on a .-2,0 is not very convenient because TOPS-1,0 TECO does
not support scope terminals and TOPS-·2,0 does.
How to get
around this problem? Since most of the TOPS-2,0 developers
were heavy TECO users from -1,0 land anyhow, it seemed obvious
to upgrade TECO to run on the DEC-2,0 and to support scopes.
This in fact they did - sort of.
Instead of starting with
.DEC's. TECO for TOPS-1,0, they started with BB&N 1 s TENEX TECO
(see page 29). After considerable modification and improvement,
they wound up with a program called TV.
TV supports many
CRTs and looks very similar to TECO.
It is currently being
used quite heavily within DEC by the DEC-2,0 implementors.
Unfortunately, since.it was not based on DEC's TECO, it has
a few features that are incompatible with TOPS-1,0 TECO and
TEC0-11.
As of the last information that I have (which is about a year
old), TV contains 61 commands that are exactly the. same as
TECO commands; it contains 19 commands that are extensions to
'l1ECO; and it contains 1,0 commands tha.t are either slightly
different than their TECO counterparts or have different names.
Clearly, only a little bit of effort co~ld have made TV
completely compatible with TECO.
Right now, TV is a very
fine editor.
However, there are a few commands that 'i:t'has
that would 'wipe out' experienced TECO users.
For example,
the R command in 'I'V is what the FS command was in TECO.
I agree that R consists of fewer keystrokes than FS, but for
the sake of only one extra keystroke, I ~ould rither see a
compatible TECO on the DEC-2,0.
Unless a lot more incompatiblities have been added since my
last information, the following changes, if made to TV, would
make it compatible with TECO:
Change names of ;R , ;W , ;X , and ;C commands to ER, EW,
EX, and EC respectively.
Change ;-space to ; command.
Change ;F to
, change F to N, and change R to FS.
Change the X command so that it does not delete the characters
extracted and change the tA command so that the syntax is
tAtexttA rather. than tAtcxt$ .
Rename E command to something else.
It seems to me that ER is just as easy to type as ;R, so I don't
understand why this conuna.nd was changed. Just a small amount
of work could turn TV into a beautiful editor compatible with
TECO, yet still keep it~· extensions. Why doesn't someone do this?
Replies to this editorial are actively solicited.

Page 22

HISTORICAL DEPARTMENT
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TOPS-1,0 TECO V23B and V23A:
1.

Lower case FS and FN commands now accepted.

ts can now match first buffer character.

TECO now recognizes SOS page marks.

A warning message is given if a file contains line sequence numbers but no /GENLSN or /SUPLSN switch ~as
specified.

TECO now uses the monitor commands TTY ALTMODE and
TTY NO ALTMODE to determine if altmode conversion should
take place.

?NNQ and ?TTL error messages added .

.7.

ALTMODE terminating a macro now returns to the next macro
level rather than reinitializing.

Numeric arguments are now preserved across carriage
return and line feed.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TOPS-1,0 TECO V23A and V23:
The only change was that the DATE-75 revision was added in V23A.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TEC0-11 V27 and V24:
The following features were in TEC0-11 version 27 which were
not in version 24:
(consult TEC0-11 manual for description
of what these commands do)
1.

scope mode command string editing

secondary input and output streams (EP, ER$, EA,EW$)

wildcards (EN) and indirect input (EI)

filespecs can use string build constructs such as tEQq

bounded search (m,nStext$ ,

~,nStext$

string build constructs: t

, tEQ* , and tEQ_

: ]q ,

EGtext$

m,nD

: Gq ,

: G* ,

, m,Stext$)

, and : Qq

1,0. n"V and n"W conditionals
11 .. EV and nEV
12. ET bits 6, 7, 8, and 15 (detach flag, abort on error,
truncate to terminal width, and CTRL/C trap)
13.. ntQ TECO command

Page 23
RELATIVE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF KED AND TECO

Tom Mcintyre

KED is a new video text editor for RT-11 which implements a
proper subset of the proposed DEC Editor Standard. EDT is the
only other DEC editor related to the standard.
The readers of
this newsletter need no introduction to TECO. The following
table gives a brief view of what I consider the chief advantages
and disadvantages of both KED and TECO.
TECO
APVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

Programmable
Powerful editing commands
Expression evaluation
Generic search types
Multiple variables

Ob~cure

mnemonics
Limited error recovery
Inconvenient file handling
Limited human engineering

KED
ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

Easy to learn
Good error recovery
Convenient file handling
Good human engineering

No macro capability
Limited variable facility
No hard copy editing

The primary difference I see between
KED
and
TECO
is
phi 10.so ph i c a.l in i ts b as i s . KE D i s d es i g n e d f.r om the ground up
as an interactive video text editor. The basic goal of the user
interface is that one can guess from the function names what any
effect will be. In those cases where the guess is incorrect, one
can easily recoyer in context by .using the inverse function.
TECO on the other hand is basically a text programming language
and incidentally an interactive editor. One mighi~p~operly view
TECO as text language interpreter which provides an "immediate"
mode
of operation.
TECO has had a very long period of
development and consequently has a very rich set of operations
and functions.
In my view this development has left TECO with
the disadvantage of a very obscure set of keywords.
Although there is no direct relatonship between the editing
semantics and the file handling capabilities, KED also has a more
natural file handling system. KED scrolls in the text file with
no reference on the user's part to edit pages or extents. The
user is free to move forward or backward to the limits of the
file.
In addition KED can maintain an auxiliary input file and
an auxiliary output file.
In order to rearrange a file with KED
and put portions of it in an output file, one need only locate to
th~ various elements in the order they are wanted and write
th~m
out.
One never needs to close and reopen the input file. The
most common compound edit operation, the global replace, is
implemented in KED.
It is called the substitute function and can

Page 24

be used either for an automatic global replace or a verify
interactively and replace.
In the global flavor it is equivalent
to the TECO command:
<@FN/STRING/STRING/>
Since TECO is a general t~xt processing language, one can
implement almost all of KED in TECO.
Indeed, the display
management code in KED is based on Herb Jacob's TECO display
manager.
Some of KED's commands are messy to implement in TECO
and the file handling would require changes to the interpreter.
KED on the other hand is more efficient since it is a direct
implementation.
A KED Emulating TECO macro has been written for TEC0-11
by D. J. Duffy.
It is hoped that this will shortly become
available from the DECUS program library.

KED has the additional "advantage" of lack of flexibility.
KEO
is a fully supported DEC product and will be maintained as a
standard on any systems on which it is implemented.
TECO
standards on the other hand depend on the continued interest of a
community of interested users.
In summary, TECO is far and away the best text processing
·language available over the whole range of DEC computers (and
many others as well). The only way a threat could develop for
TECO in this area would be for DEC to develop a go6d SNOBOL for
all the systems (an unlikely occurence). KED on the other hand
is unsurpassed for ease of learning and effectiveness in standard
text editing situations.

Page 25

Keypad Layout for VT100
Lower Function is GOLD

DELETE
LINEFEED
CTRL/U
CTRL/W
CTRL/Z
CTRL/C
<GOLD>nnn

RUB CHAR
RUB WORD
RUB LINE
SCREEN UPDATE
CANCEL (PROMPTS)
CANCEL (MOVEMENT)
REPEAT ANY FUNCTION

Page 26

[OPEN] INPUT file
[OPEN] OUTPUT file

Open Auxiliary Input file
Open auxiliary output file

CLOSE
PURGE

Close Auxiliary output file
Purge Auxiliary output file

INCLUDE options
SKIP
options
WRITE
options

Read from input file
Ignore from input file
Write to output file

options

nnn PAGES
nnn LINES
REST

Pages as defined
Lines
Remainder of file

CLEAR PASTE

Clear paste buffer

EXIT
QUIT

Close files and restart editor
Purge files and restart editor

SET [ENTITY] PAGE defn
SET [ENTITY] SECTION defn

Define a page
Define a section

defn

' or " string of chars ' or "
nnn LINES

SET [SEARCH] GENERAL
SET [SEARCH] EXACT

Gen er a 1 s e arch e s
Exact searches

SET [SEARCH] BEGIN
SET [SEARCH] END

Cursor at beginning of target
Cursor at end of target

SET [SEARCH] BOUNDED
SET [SEARCH] UNBOUNDED

Bound search on PAGE definition
Searches are not bounded

SET [SCREEN] 80
SET [SCREEN] 132

Set screen width

SET [SCREEN] LIGHT
·SET [SCREEN] DARK

Screen to reverse background
Screen to normal background

SET QUIET
SET NO QUIET

Errors do not sound terminal
Errors sound terminal bell

b~ll

Page 27

HARVARD TECO
This article describes Harvard TECO version 22.5
which runs on a DECsystem-1~. Harvard TECO is based upon
DEC's TECO for the -1~, version 22.
(TOPS-1~ TECO version
21 was the 'traditional' TECO that OS/8 TECO and TEC0-11
are based on; whereas the current TOPS-1~ TECO by DEC is
version 24.)
Information for this article comes from a
memo dated May 1972 and is probably considerably out-ofdate.
Recent infor~ation about Harvard innovations to
'TECO would be appreciated. Comments in italics are the
editor's personal opinions.
1. A new output file may not be opened until an existing
output file is closed explicitly.
(A good .6afie.ty p!te.c.au:t,,lon. TEC0-11 woJtk.o :th).-6 way :too. )
2. Y and·
commands have been replaced by EY and E_ conunands
res.pecti vely.
(AgCU.n, a good .oafiet.y fie.a:tu.Jte.. Howe.veA, 1 Uf~e. TEC0-11 '.6 and OS/ 8 '.6
Yank p!to:te.c..:tlon algo!U;thm be.:t:teJt. )
3. Control.characters are permitted in searches and inserts
just as they were in DEC's TECO version 21.
(A w,,U.,e. fiJ..x...
1 6e.e1. VEC made. a mL6:ta~~e. whe.n :the.y p!toYU.bUe.d c.on:t!tol
cha!Ulc.:tvu, fitc.om in-6 eJt.:t .o:t!ting.o. 1 :th,,(~nk. tha.t. the. only Jte-O:ttc.ic.te.d
c.ha1tac.:tvu., .6 ho uld be. CTR LIE, CTR LIQ, CTR LI R, CTR L/ S , and CTR L/X and
CTRL/N. Ft.du.Jte. e.nhan.c.e.me.nt.6 c.an all ,lnvolve. CTRL/E c.olii6:Utuc.:t.6 -00
M :to avoid inc.ompa:tlbll.J.Zle.o wUh e.x..i_,.otin.g mac.Jto-O . )
4. Space is ignored as a TECO command.
( Ve.tc.y w,[J,:, e.. U6ing .6 pac.e. to me.an plM up.6 w
Jte.adabll);ty and good. p1wgtc.amming p!tac;tlc.e.. )

ail my ide.a.o o 6

5. FB bounded search command has been implemented..
It takes
an.argument that is the same as the argument allowed on
line commands such as K, T,
and X.
In other words,
nFBtext$
m,nFBtext$

searches the next n lines
searches between pointer positions
m and n.

The original pointer position does not change if the
bounded search fails.
(1 Uke. thi.6 -0c.he.me. be.tie.ft than the. -Oc.he.me. Me.d by ve.Mion. 29 06
TEC0-11. It ,[}.:, e.a.oie.Jt to Jte.me.mbe.Jt and Me.. )
6. The nFSstringl$string2$ command makes n replacements.
(Thi.6 ,[}., inc.ompatible. w.Uh ail the- TEC0-0 a;t VEC. Iu 6unctfonaLUy
c.an e.a.o.Lfy be. ac.hie.ve.d with the. n< FS-0,t.JLlng 1$.obll. ng2 $> c.ommand. )
7. The FC (Find and Change) command is a combination of the
FS and FB commands. Thus m,nFCa$b$ finds the first
occurrence of "a" between buffer pointer positions m and n
and replaces it with the string "b".
(Ne.at!)

Page 28

HARVARD TECO (cont.)
8. The ntE.comrnand can be used to set the form feed flag.
9. The :X command works like an X command but deletes the
extracted text from the text buffer.
In this case, the X
is mnemonic for Xfer rather than extract.
{Many pe.ople. be.lie.Ve. tha.t tti,U, 1-6 the mo!Le. u,o e.6ul option. Howe.ve.JL,
1 be.Ue.ve. U would be. too ·de.va1.>ta:tlng to make. f.luc..h a c..hcinge. in
e.w:ting TECOf.l. Pe.JLhapf.l the. :th,[ng :to do .i-6 to ma/Ge. U .a Me.IL option
by putUng tti,U, 6ac.J.lliy unde.JL the. c.onVr..ol on f.lome. EV b).;(;.. )
1,0. Harvard TECO contains a form of .the EU command for upper/
lower case conversions. However, it has a very strange
and incompatible syntax, so I won't describe it here.
11. Position Recording Arguments (VB, VI, and VS).
VB is set to the buffer pointer position at the start of
any search command. Thus, if the search failed, VBJ
gets you back to where you were.
{u,oe.fiul}
.
VI returns the value of the buffer pointer position
immediately before the most recent insert command.
Thus VI,. K kills an incorrect insert. ·
(The. TEC0-11 c..ommand FR$ doe.f.l the. f.lame. th,[ng. )
VS returns the value of the text buffer position directly
in front of the string matched by the most recent
successful search.
12. End-of-Line Counting Arguments (VL and VZ).
VZ is the number of end-of-line characters in the text
buffer. VL is the number of end-of-line characters
preceding the current text buffer pointer position.
13; Line Formatting Aids (VC and VH).
VC returns the number of ASCII characters between the
beginning of the current line and the current pointer
position. VH is similar to VC but gives special consideration to characters such as tab," carriage-return,
and backspace. Thus VH approximates the horizontal
po~ition of the current pointer on a printed page.

14.

15.
16.

17.

(The. e.quivale.nt ofi VH would be ve.JLy c..onve.nlent nofL the vrEVIT mac.Jto.
TEC0-11 might want to implement tft,U, via f.lometlung uke a O: tQ
c..ommand.)
ntO\ inserts the octal representation of n into the text
buffer.
f3 e.ne.!Lal oc..:tal Jtacllx mode. i-6 a beile.JL f.lofu:tion to. tw p~oble.m. )
n:; exits an iteration if n is negative.
{Th,,U, -6 ee.m6 ve.JLy u-6 efiul to help w!LW.ng f.lbwc..tuJt.e.d c..ode.. )
: T command ·is similar to T command but non-printing characters have special echo. For example, carriage-return
types out as <CR> .
: modifier only affects the very next command and would
not extend across conunands until it found a comrnand for
which it were meaningful.

Page 29

BB&N TECO
This versiori of TECO was written by BB&N (Bolt Beranek and
Newman, Inc.) and runs under the 'l ENEX operating s'ystem.
Some of this information comes from Bill Plummer at BB&N.
Also, I wish to extend my deepest thanks to James Neeland
of the Hughes Researcih Laboratories who sent me a manual.
This information reflects BB&N TENEX TECO as of Oct.ober
1973.
1

I am a bit reluctant to call this editor a TECO variant because it contains several radical departures from traditional
TECO . . These changes are extremely inconsistent with all the
TECOs at DEC. An experienced DEC TECO user would have a lot
of trouble trying to use this 'TECO'.
The main incompatibilities are:
(a) The R command does a replace (i.t does what the FS command
does in DEC's TECOs).
(b} A single ALTMODE is the immediate action command that
means start execution of this command string.
rn order
to enter a single ALTMODE into a command string without
beginning execution, you must use the immediate action
command CTRL/D which inserts an ALTMODE into the command
string.
(c} For no reason that I have been able to discern, the E
commands have all been changed to ; commands. Thus, to
open a file for input, you type ;Rfilespec$
EF became ;C , EW became ;W , etc.
'The original ; command is now ; followed by a space ( L.G HJ
However, there are enough similarities between this TECO and
DEC's TECOs, that some of their extensions are worth mentioning.
The following lists some 6f its extensions to DEC's TOPS-1~
TECO version 24. My comments are in italics. Reader comments
are solicited.
1.

Negative arguments to a search command cause the search
to proceed backwards.
(A u,oe6ul 6ea-tWLe; abl..e,ady .ln. TEC0-11.)

A backward search initiated when the text buffer pointer
is currently at the start of the buffer will automatically
bring the pointer to the end of the buffer and then the
search will commence.

A ~ repetition count to a search or replace corrunand is
a no-op.

EAfilespec$ opens the file for append.

Backspace, if typed as the very first charact~r in a
corrunand string is an inunediate action command that. performs an effe~tive -LT$$ command. Linefeed, if typed as
the very first character in a conm1and string, is an immediate action command that performs an effective LT$$
command.
(Th-Ll 6eatuJre ~ going -ln:to TEC0-11. )

Pa.ge

BB&N TECO <cont.>
6.

ntH tells TECO what kind of terminal you are running on.

A new Q-register, by the name of @ is defined.
It has a
special property.· If TECO is halted, and the resulting
core-image is saved, the result is a runnable program.
When that program is run, it starts up by executing the
contents of Q-register @, i.e. an effective M@ conunand
occurs.
This feature is useful for creating run~able
TECO programs.

The conunand m,nG gets a copy of the (n-m) characters
beginning with the character after pointer position m
and inserts it at the current pointer position.
nG makes a copy of the next n lines leaving the buff er
pointer between the copies.
Gq works as it always did.

(The..¢e c..ommand6 w~ec..Q havoe on TEC0'-6 algo!U.thm 60~ -6/ulpping
c..ommand6. A po-6-6ible u..6e 60~ m,nGq might be to get the mth ~augh
n.th c..hMaetvc6 6~om Q-~eg~,t~ q in.to the tex:t bufifi~.)
9.

The ;P (Pick-up) conunand performs a ~A command combined
with a C conunand, returning the value accessed.

l~.

m,nV types the m-1 lines before the current line, types
the current line, then types the n-1 lines after the current line.
nV is the same as n,nv . V means lV .
(A n.iee eompa:Uble ex.tenJ.>ion to TEC0-11 '-6 V c..ommand. )

CCA TECO
This version of TECO is a modification of BB&N TECO.
It was
implemented at the Computer Corporation of America in Cambridge
by someone whose initials are MRC.
The following information
was obtained from Donald Eastlake III and appears to be
current as of July 1977. The following is a partial list of
~ifferences between CCA TECO and BB&N TECO:
1.

ALTMODE was restored to its original status.
To quote
from MRC: 11 The misfortune of using tD for a single al tmode and
altmode for double altmode has been flushed.
tD is now an ordinary
character, and TECO behaves like every other TECO in the world. "

Space, if typed as the very first character.in a command
string, is an immediate action command that performs an
effective ~TT$$ command.

Carriage-return and line-feed throw away any numeric
argument preceding them.

ntT types out the character whose ASCII code is n.

(OS/8 TECO and TEC0-11 ~eady do th,,0~.)
Documentation also indicates that phase-of-the-moon commands
will shortly be implemented (I. gather to be compatible with
MIT I s TECO. )

Page 31

WPI TECO
WPI TECO (also known as WACCC TECO) was written at the
Worcester Polytechnic Institute Computer Center and is based
on DEC's TECO (version 23) for TOPS-1~. The following information (current as of April 1977) is based on WPI TECO
version 23T. Comments in script typ·e are the editor's personal· comments •
1 .. EP (Page Control) command adde:d.
I don't understand the
lEP command.
2EP returns the current page number.
4EP sets 'truth-in-paging mode~'.
In this mode,. Y and P
commands must proceed to form feed characters, expanding
core as necessary.
If this mode is not set, Y and P
commands may stop when the current·buffer is nearly full,
setting the fbrm-feed flag (tE) to ~ to indicate that a
partial page has been read in.
8EP causes the terminal bell to ring ( .t.o wak.e you.. up ) upon
the completion of a seorch or P command.
16EP causes the EB command to create a .OLD backup file
instead of a .BAK backup file.
This allows for an extra
level of backup. (ThL!, mode ,lJ., not nec.e.-6.6aJty on opeJt.a.tlng
-0yotem-0 thCL:t u...6e fiile vvw-lon numbVt6.)
2.

EQq types the text stored in Q-register q.
(OS/ 8 TECO and TEC0-11 u...6 e the : Cq

c.ommand to do t/U-0. )

EXQ and EGQ are quick versions: of the EX and EG commands
respectively. They are much faster than EX and EG because they don't mung over each character.
Instead, they
pad the current buffer with nulls, and then block for
block copy the rest of the input file to the output file
without looking at the characters. Nulls encountered later
in the input file will not be purged. Presumably, these
nulls will be purged the next time the file is edited.

n,mStext$ searches the text buffer between pointer
positions n and m for the specified text.
(Th,lf., .6 eemo a bli mohe log-le.al than .the TEC0-17 bounded M!..a!tc.h
c.ommand.)

EDfilespec$ inserts into the text buffer (at the current
pointer position) a directory listing of the specified
directory. Wildcards are permitted.
If only·a single
filename is specified, then this command does not do any
insertion into the text buffer, but instead returns a value
of -1 or ~ specifying whether or not the file exists.

EKfilespec$ deletes the ~pecified file.
{Tlii-6 e,apa.bilixy -l-6 1r~1~-lng {i!Lom TEC0-11. )

EC core compression command. Causes TECO to relinquish
any ~xtra core that may have been obtained by expansion
of its low segment.
(A moJr.e. genC'/l.al c.ommaJ~d wou1.d be. nEC wlue,~ .would :ten TE~O. :to. e~pand

Page 32

WPI TECO (cont.)
8~

l~.

EAprogram$ causes TECO to abort and run the specified
program.
(T~ ~ no.t. a.6 geneJLal a.6 .t.he OS/ 8 TECO EGcommand$ whlc.h a,liow-6
an aJtb.i:tAa.Jiy monA.Xo!t c.omma.n.d .t.o be executed. Na.t.u.Jc..a.Lty,
EGr program$ ~ a va.li.d TECO c.ommand. J
EJ job information command. EJ returns the current job
number.
lEJ returns the user's project,progral11Iller number
in the text buffer. n,mEJ does a GETTAB of n,m_and returns the result.
nP-has been changed to look for a6tual form feed characters.
In. DEC's TECO, the nP command is identical to n<PWY> which
is not quite the same thing, since the Y command might
stop on buffer full rather than form feed encountered.

11. The EZ and EO commands were removed.
12. TECO may be initialized by a TECO.IN! file.
If a file
named TECO.IN! exists in the user's area, it will be read
and the data in it (which must be in a particular rigid
format) is used to load up TECO Q-registers.
If Q-register
~ is loaded by ·this scheme, TECO will perform an M~
command.
{Bec.aMe ofi .t.he -tipeelal fio!tma;t 06 .t.he INI 6Ue, .t.w me.t.hod
inLUalizati..on ~ no:t M genefta.£ M .t.he fie.heme Med by S.t.eveM
TECO whlc.h e6fiec.,tfoely .t.Jtea.,to .t.he -text in .t.he • INI 6..[le M a mac.Jto
.t.o be exec.u..ted. ThM me;t.hod ~ alfio Med by TEC0-11 and will f>oon
be U-6 ed by OS/ 8 TECO. J

on .

TECA
TECA is a display version of WPI TECO. The meager information
I have on it was received in January of 1977. It was written
by Andy Nourse at DEC and is probably not in use at very many
places outside of DEC. Some of its features are:
1.

It maintains a window into the text buffer and updates it
after each command string execution.

nW command sets size of display window.

V command takes same arguments as T command but moves
the window to the specified text area.

n++ sets the terminal type.
terminal characteristics.

All ASCII characters are legal Q-register names. Each
Q-register has two parts and can contain ·both a text
st~ing.and a numeric value.
(Hat1,Lng uppe!t c.Me and loweJL c.cue Q-Jteg~teJU> be d,t660en:t. ~ a
!Leal lo-6 e. J

It can also be used to set

Page 33

STEVENS TECO
This version of TECO runs on a DECsystem-1.0 and is based on
DEC's TECO (version 23) for TOPS-1~~
It was writien at
Stevens Institute of Technology by John Ptochnak, Gary Brown,
and Robert McQucen.
The following information describes the
differences between ~tevens TECO version 123 and DEC's TECO
version 23.
It is accurate as of January 1976.
·
1.

The Y command has been replaced. by EY.
within macros.)

Th.e ER and EW conunands d.efaul t unspecified fields from
corresponding previous cqmmands.

A log-file capability has been added.
ELfilespec$
closes any previous log file and opens a new one.
A copy of all TECO type-in and typeout goes into the
log file.
EX automatically closes the log file.·
Switches such as /NOIN and ·/NOOUT are permitted to
specify that only typeout (or only type~in) is to be
logged.
/APPEND appends to the log ·file. TECO macros
can dynamically change log modes via an nEL$ command.

ENfilespec$ renames the current input file to the name
specified. EN$ deletes the current input file.

EDfilespec$ instructs TECO to run the specified program
whenever TECO is exited. ED$ removes the pending run of
such a program.

:m,ntT allows TTCALLs to be executed.

The EEfilespec$ (Edit Execute) command saves the state of
TECO in the file specified. Subsequent running of that
file, causes this image to start up again.
It continues
executing commands that followed the EE command.

(Y still works

(SeveJLal people ha.ve told me tha;t t!u~ ),).;, an e.x:tJtemefy uJ.>e6ul
c..ommand. It ),).;, f)omewha:t mM.e c..onven.Le.n..t :to uJ.>e than the MONG
c..ommand.)

Commands such as ER, C, R, J, etc. can be colon modified
and return a value of -1 for success and .0 for failure.

The EX command has been changed to act like the EXQ
command of WPI TECO.

1,0. The second CTRL/A in a CTRL/A command now forces-out the
text.
(Under DEC's TECO, terminal characters were buffered
up until a line feed was output or the program terminated.)
11. Negative searches are permitted and cause the search to
proceed backwards.
(MMt ne.w TEC0f) M.e al.lowing tJv[f). )
12. m,nSstring$ searches for the specified string ~hich must
begin between pointer positions m and n.
If m>n, then
the search proceeds backw.ards.. Bounded search also works
for the FS command.

STEVENS TECO (cont.)
13. EAfilespec$ (Edit Append) opens the specified file for
update (appends at the end) .
14. Wq is similar to Mq but jumps to the Q-register.
It
stores nothing on TECO's internal ·push-down stack and
does not expect you to ever return to the macro.level
in which the Wq conunand is issued.
It is useful for
large TECO programs that are nested so deeply that they
might otherwise get PDL overflows.
15.

* is a valid Q-register name.

16. EPfilespec$ reads the specified file into Q-register *.

17. Eifilespec$ is the same is EPfilespec$M* executing the
contents of the specified file.
(Thl6 L6 1.>imi..la.JL but not -identical to TEC0-11 '!.:> EI command. The
cUfit)eJtence. L6 tha:t. TEC0-11 th,[nk-6 the. cha.JtacteJtJ.> a.Jte com,ing 61tom
.t.he .t.e.Jl..m.i..nal.., -00 ceJt:ta.£n cha.Jtacte.Jl,6 w~ have .t.hU!t immedia:t.e
et) t)e.ct M .lmmeclla..t.e ac...t,lon command.6 Jta.theJt than M TECO command.6.
Fo!t example, undeJt TEC0-11, a CTRL/ U in an -!-ncU!tect t)ile would
eJtMe .t.he cU!t!ten:t .command .fine..
I do no.t. .t.Mnk .t.ha:t. L6 good and
1 Uk.e the S.t.eve.n1.:> TECO algo!tithm belie.A. TEC0-11 could be
modit)ie.d by I.> eX.Ung a 1.>wilch on an EI command .t.o fuable checking
ot) imme.dia:t.e. ac...t,lon command1' (e.xcep.t. $$) un:tll .input Jte.t.WLnJ.> .t.o.
a phy1.>ica1.. .t.e.Jl..m.i..nal. )
18. If a file by the name of TECO.IN! resides on the user's
area, TECO will EI this file upon startup.
19. The FDstring$ conunand searches for the specified string
and deletes everything from the original pointer position
to the new pointer position if the string is found.
Bounded Find and Delete is also legal.
(1 have. been .t.old .t.ha:t. th-l6 command may change. .t.o FK and tha:t. FV
would mean dele.t.e. .t.he -0.t.Jt,lng tha:t. WM t)ound. )
2JL Search failures now preserve the text buffer pointer.
(Th-l6 .may be veJty convenienx but will W-l ewUng TECO mac.JtoJ.>.)
21. The EC conunand will cause TECO to garbage collect and
shrink to its original size.
· 22·. ntP pages out to page n..
ntY yanks in text until page n
has been read in.
23. n,m= is the same as m= but then types out the character
whose ASCII code is n.
(The. OS/8 and TEC0-11 ntT and n:= 1.:>eem moJte UJ.>et)ul.)
24. n,mtG performs a GETTAB UUO.
25. ntF r~turns the terminal number being used by job n.
26. Qq= types the text stored in Q-register q.
(TIUA would not wo!tk on TECO ,f..mple.men:ta.:tlon!.> tha:t. have 1.>pUt QJteg-l6teJtJ.> • )

Page 35

STEVENS/TEXAS TECO
.is version of TECci (for the DECsystem-1~) is based on Stevens
version 123.
It was written at Texas University by
Clive Dawson. The differences between version 124 of this TECO
~nd the original vl23 Stevens version are described below:

~CO

The CTRL/G<space>immediate action corruuand was fixed so that
it never types literally even if lET is set.

2.
3.

ntG does a PEEK.
.i, j tG does a GE'I'TAB ..

tG returns your job number.
ntF returns the TTY number of job n, -ltF is your TTY no.

s.
6.
7.
8.

tG. (bell-dot) immediate action command retypes the entire
command _string.
The EB command always writes into ~{our area and allows
a /IN~LACE switch to ~ean don't create a backup file.
·n\\ and \\ are the same as n\ and \ but work in bctal
radix.
(Thl6 dou not a.ppe.att _to be. a-6 ge.ne/tal M TEC0-8'/.)
and TEC0-11 '~ ge.ne!Lal odal Jta.dix. mode.. )
The lil;lefeed, backspace, and semicolor~ immediate action
-commands· were implemented.
If typ1ed as the very first
keystroke after TECO's prompt, they simulate the action
of the. Lrr, -LT, and ,0LT commands re spec ti vely.
·

· l~. The EK command cancels any.outstanding EW, EB, or EA
commands.
11. CTRL/Gq inside a string substitutes the contents of
Q-Register q into that string.
(Thl6 pJtoUfi eJta:tlo n o 6 ne.w /.) pe.ua.l c.hattacXeJL/.) bt /.) e.Mc.h /.)tfUng/.)
/.)e.em.o :to me. to be. .bad. 1.t. jMt lu-0e.M the. numbeJt ot) c.ho.Jtac..t.w
:that c.an. be. e.MJJ..tJ type.d difte.c.ily. 1 woui,ld ptte.neJt to .oe.e. a.11- new
c.oMtJtuc:t6 be.. imple..me..n:te.d Cl.6 CTRL/E c.on-6:t.Jtuc.:t6 and allow aU othe.Jt
eon:tttol c.hMac..t.e.Jt/.) · to be. le.gal ).,M,lde.. ,ot;i/ln.g aJtgume.n..to. )
12. The /APPEND switch is allowed on the filespec in an EW
command and converts the EW command to an EA command.
13. The TECO monitor command can now have a /READONLY switch
which causes TECO to perform an ER rather than an EB.
14. CRT support. This version knows over a dozen types of
scope terminals and handles command line scope editing
correctly (rubout, backspace, CTRL/U, etc.)
( U6 eJt/.) o6 TEC0-11 and TECO- 8 aiJte.ady luww whaX a gtte..aX boon tlU-6
).,/.). Whe.n. you Jtubout a chaJtac..t.eJL, J...t tte..ally clLoappe.a.JW fiJwm lJOU!L
.6c.tte.en.. T/i,Ll 1)e.a.t.utte.. Wottlu e.ve.n. whe.n Jtuibb,ln.g out ob.oc.utte
c.ha.Jtac..t.e.!t.6 Uke.. tab and une.6e.e..d. )
This version of TECO is widely in use in the field.
There
pre probably between 5~ and l~~ installations using this
version.
It is available from CJ.ive Dawson, Computation Center,
University of Texas, Austin, Texas, 78712 for a nominal postage
and handling fee.
Send Clive a MAGtape (he'll write 9-track 8~~ bpi).

Page 36

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
This column will attempt to answer questions submitted by
readers on any TECO-related topics. Our first set'of
questions were submitted by David Yost of Hollywood California
. and apply specifical~y to RT-11 TECO.
Ql. by David Yost.
How do I reclaim the right brace, }, as a priniing
character? TECO seems to be tra~slating it into· an
ESCAPE.
Al. by Roy A. Auerbach (Texas. Tech University, Lubbock, Texas)
Both the right brace and tilde (octal 175 and 176) are
interpreted by RT-11 TECO as an ESCape. The file TECO.SAV
may be patched to eliminate this. Address 124 from the
bottom of TECO.SAV must be patched. The value of 227,0,0
at this address must be changed to 2~7.
Running version
28 TECO with RT-11 V-,03, my bottom a.ddress is 3756.
A sample run to patch with my system would be:
R PATCH
TECO.SAV
3756; ,0R
~, 124/ 227~~

2,07

Q2. by David Yost
Is there a way to get the text buffer pointer to stay
where it is when a search on the current page fails?
A2. by Stan Rabinowitz
Yes.
In TEC0-11, V28, the command ~,nStext$ is exactly
the ·same as the command nStext$ except that it has the
desired property that the pointer position remains
unchanged after search string failure.
This command can
of course be colon modified so that you can detect the
failure.
Q3. by David Yost
The manual I have refers to version 27 of TEC0-11, but
I have version 28. What do I do?
A3. by

t~e

editor

Consult page 7 of issue number 1 of the Moby Munger for a
complete list of differences between V27 and V28. The
main enhancement was that Xq and tUq permit a colon modifier to mean append to a-register instead of load.
Queries should be submitted to the editor, Stan Rabinowitz,
6 Countr~ Club Lane, Merrimack, NH 03054.

Page 37
A NOTE ON THE EN COMMAND
by Jim Burrows

The EN comand, which allows wild-card file lookups is extremely
·useful, but at least on RSTS, has one drawback.
on many disk
structures the act of editting can change the order of the files in
the directory such that the EN command will return some file names
twice and others not at all. A simple coding technique can be used to
· avoid this ..
Basically,
the public structure on a RSTS system can span
multiple ·disks, thus editting a· file can cause it to migrate from one
disk .to another changing the order.of the directory. Furthermore,
unless the NFF bit is set on a disk, new files are added to the end of
the directory.
Thus if you edit the first file in a directory, it
becomes the last file in the directory and EN probably will find it
later.
For those not familiar with the EN command, I will briefly review
its use.
It takes a filespec arguement like the EB or ER commands.
Rather than open a
file,
the filespec is used to perform wildcard
directory look-ups.
Subsequent invocations of EN without a filespec
cause the name of the next file matching the spec to be loaded into
the '*' pseudo-Qreg. Thus, if we execute the command:
•
@EN"foobar.* 11
TECO will perform the necessary setup to allow it to find all files
with the filename FOOBAR. Qreg * does not yet contain the name of a
file at ·this point. To get the name of the first ffle, we must execute
the command:
@EN""

our
say

So far
there is no problem. The name of the first··file matching
wild-card spec will be in Qreg *· ~owever, if we edit the file,
with the command:
@EB""EQ*"

we may change the order of the files in the directory. a subsequent
call will return us
the name of the second file which CURRENTLY
matches the wild card spec. If we havi= indeed changed the order of the
files,
the file that used to be the second may now be first, and we
may get the file that was originally third.
This problem can be avoided if we first gather the filenames and
then edit the files.
The follwing macro is an example of this
technique. In it we will change all occurances of "DNDA" to rrMP:DNDA
in all files that match the wildca.rd spec "DND???.BAS". The list of
filenames
is kept on the stack. The :] command is used to detect the
end of the stack, and thus the macro will only work on versions of
TECO which have implemented this feature.
11

Page 38

A NOTE ON THE EN COMMAND (cont.)

A note
on the format of the macro. The author and several other
programmers at DEC who do a lot of work in TECO, have adopted the use
of a program to strip the comments and unnecessary whitespace from
TECO macros to
increase efficiency of the macro when executed. Thus
the following conventions are used:

1) All comments start with"!*" and end with"*!" so that they
may be distinguished from labels.
2) No

literal strings contain CR or LF so that leading and
whitespace can be deleted on a per-line basis.

trai~ing

!***************!
!* set up code *!
!***************!
<:]l;>
@EN"DND???.BAS"

!* Clean off the stack *!
!* Initialize the wildcard look-up *!
!****************************!
!* First get the file names *!
!****************************!

<@:EN II";
G* ""YXl ""YK [ 1

!* Get first file name into Qreg * *!
!* Get it in memory, push it, delete it. *!
!* And do it again, till the :EN fails *!

!************************!
!* Now go do the edits. *!
!************************!
<:] 1;

!* Pop the first name off the stack. *!
!* Edit (indirect) the file *!

@EB"""EQl"

<@FN"DNDA"TMP:DNDA";V>!* Do the edit throughout the file *!
EC
@'"'A" Done with
13"T 10"T

l * Close the file *!
:Gl ! * Tell 'em what you did *!

! * Return the carriage *!
!* Go back and get the next file *!

Page 39

TECO MACRO OF THE MONTH
This macro creates a distinctive IN USE message on a user's
display terminal.
It prints a user message on the top of the
screen_, it prints IN USE in block letters in the middle, and
it displays a canned message at the bottom of the screen in
ticker-tape fashion.

"A
Z"N"A
HT
'

ET/11 ET· "A$H$J
Z"N"A

III III
IIIIII
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
III III
III III

NN
N-N
NN
NN
NN
NNNN
NN
NNNN
NNNN
NN
NNNN
NN
NN NN NN
NN NN NN
NNNN
NN
NNNN
NN
NNNN
NN
.NN
NNNN
NN
NN
NN
NN

----->

<-----"A ' HK "A

uu
uu
uu
uu
uu
. uu
uu
uu
uu
uu
uu
uu

uuuuuu
uuuuuu

uu
uu
uu
uu
uu
uu
uu
uu
uu
uu
uu
uu

ssssssss
ssssssss
SS
SS
SS
SS

ssssss
ssssss

ssssssss
ssssssss

SS
SS
SS
SS

EEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEE
EE
EE
EE
EE
EEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEE

Jn use by TECO fanatic John Doe
"A

!This terminal is presently in use. $
!Unfortunately, I am forced to leave my post for a short period of time.
II will be back soon. $
!Woe unto him who steals my terminal during my absence. $
!The security of the whole free world depends upon my accomplishing my $
!duties at this terminal. $
!Under no circumstances is this terminal to be used by anyone $
!without my permission.
$
OU1 0,80XA ZJ GA J
<Q1,Q1+80T %1-Z+79"E1U1' "A'fl"A>

"c." c

where 4) de:notes a CR (with no LF)
This macro runs under all DEC operating systems. On some
systems it is first necessary to set up the terminal with a
SET TTY NO CRLF conunand or its equivalent.
It is run from
RSX, RSTS, IAS, OS/8, VAX, and R'r-11 via the command
MUNG INUSE,message where "message" is any user message.
It
is run from rroPS-1,0 via t.he corrunands: R TECO
*ERINUSE.TEC$YHXZHKimessage$MZ$$

Page 4,0

COMPATIBILITY CORNER

by Stanley Rabinowitz

The following TECO conunands are identical on TEC0-11 v29,
OS/8 TECO v5, and TOPS-1,0 TECO v24, or have only slight
incompatibili~±es:

nI$

I
(n)

N
0

+
tT
FS
"E

z
~A

ttx

<n>

PW
D

c
I

In addition to the above, the are a large number of other
features that are compatible, such as the inunediate action
corru.nands, the-execution time conunands, and the match control
constructs.
Also, there are a large number of conunands on each operating
system that are extensions to TECO, but are not incompatible
with each other.
In-the last issue of the Moby M., we listed a set of compatibility-issues that are yet to be resolved. No one sent
in any comments. These issues and their results are described
below. Note that many of these issues have already been
resolved; and many cannot be resolved until the -1,0 group is
ready to re-release TOPS-1,0 TECO. Notation: $ denotes an
ALTMODE and ( "'X) repres_ents the single character CTRL/X.

Implementation Dependent Date
Problem:

The (AB) command returns an implementationdependent value.

Discussion:

It is unlikely that the user really wants
the date in a strange encoded form.
He will probable decode it first thing.
Proposal (a) below incurs a possible race
condition around midnight of New Year's Eve.

Proposals:

(a)

Replace (AB) with n(AB) command.
Arguments as follows:
1(AB)
returns year (0-1999)
2(AB)
returns month (1-12)
3(AB)
returns day (1-31)

(b)

Have (AB) insert the date
into the text buffer as a character
string.

(c)

Leave (AB) as system deperident.

Decision:

issue still pending

Page 41

Implementation dependent time
Problem:

The ("H) comm~nd returns an implementationdependent time of day.

Discussion:

_internal word size of -11 cannot store
number of seconds in a day.
Proposal (a) below incurs a race condition.
If at 4:59:59 a program accesses the hour and
finds it to be 4 and then the program accesses
the minute and finds it to be 00 (since it is
now 5:00), the program will incorrectly think the
time is 4:00 when it is actually 5:00.

Proposals:

(a)

Replace ("H) by n("H) command
with arguments as follows:
1 ( "H)
2("H)
3("H)

4 ("H)

Decision:

returns number of hours since
midnight (0-23)
returns number of minutes since
last whole hour (0-59).
returns number of seconds since
last whole minute (0-59)
returns implementation-dependent
number of ticks since last
whole second.·

.(b)

Have ("H) insert the time as a
character string in the text buffer.

(c)

Le av e ( " H) to b e s y s t em .d.e pe n d en t .

issued still pending

Incompatible form feed command
Problem:

The ("L) command is- ignored on -8 but
prints a form feed on -10 and -11.

Discussion:

-10 use of ("L) can be performed by the
equivalent command ("A)("L)("A)

Proposals:

Decision:

change -8 to conform with -10 and -11.

(b)

Change -10 and -11 to conform with -8.

It was decided that the -8 should conform.
OS/8 TECO was changed to conform as of v5.

Page 42

Radix control problem
Problem:

-8 and -11 allow TECO to work in two modes
(octal radix and decimal radix mode). The
current mode of TECO affects many commands.
The -10 does everything in decimal, except
for a few commands, and treats ("0) as
a modifier for numeric strings.

Discussion:

Octal mode seems.more important on small
machines.

Proposals:

(a)

change -10 to conform with -8 and -11.

(b)

Change -8 and -11 's ("0) and ("D)
to ("0)$ and ("D)$ .

(c)

Change -8 and -11 's ("0) and ("D)
to ("O)("'O) and ("D)("D).

(d)

Define a bit in the ED flag, such that
if this bit is set, ("0) and ("D)
will only apply to the next digit string.

(e)

Make the O("R) command mean that future
occurrences of ("O) and ("D) only app~y
to the next digit s~ring.

Issue still pending.

Decision:
5.

0 b so 1 et e

us e o f ( " R)
lo

·::··

••

Problem:

On -8 and -11, ("R) is a redundant command,
having the same meaning as FS.

Discussion:

("R) was implemented before FS was implemented
on -10. Then FS was put in for compatibility
with -10. ("R) was kept for compatibility with
old -8 versions of TECO.
("R) is easier to type than FS (?).

Proposals:

Decision:

(a)

Remove ("R) command from -8 and -11
to free up character for future use.

(b)

Leave duplicate command in

It was feit that ("R) was an unecessary command.
("R) is no longer in TEC0-11 or OS/8 TECO.

Page 43

Incompatible (AV) command
Problem:

On the -10~ (AV) is used to go into 'translate
to lower case' mode. On the -8 and -11,
(AV) returns TECO's version number.

Discussion:

letters V and W are firmly locked in.to lower
and upper_ case mnemonics on -10.
(AV) on -8 and -11 is not a critical command,
unlikely to change running of old macros.

Proposals:

J<a>
(b)

Decision:

Change (AV) command on -8 and -11 to
EO command. For next release on -10,
upgrade EO value to -10's TECO version
number (e.g. 23).
Change (AV) on -8 and -11 to EV .

(AV) and (AW) are heavily used on the -10
and should not ch~nge. (AV) on the -8 and
-11 is not a crucial command and EO would
be j us t ·as use fu 1 .
This change was made to OS/8 TECO as of V5.
This change was made to TEC0-11 as of v29.

· Incompatible (AW) command
Problem:

On the -10, (AW) is used to go into 't~anslate
to upper case' mode. On the -8 and -11,
(AW) is used to force a display update on
scope displays.
.. >
"""··

Discussion:

Proposals:
Decision:

·~

Both uses are very common on their respective
machines.
-11 will eventually want to support
upper and lower case, however, they're not
sure they like t~e -10's syntax.

J<a>

Change (AW) on -8 and -11 to W.

"(AW). is needed by the -10. On the -8 and -11
it is only used by scope TECOs and could
more easily change. PW would be considered
a single 2-character command and therefore
should not be confused with the two commands,
P followed by W.
(AW) was changed to W in OS/8 TECO v5 and· in
TEC0-11 v29.

Page 44

Incompatible ("Z) command
Problem:

On the -10, ( "Z) causes return to operating
system after finishing I/O and closing
output file. On -8 and -11, ("Z) returns
total number of characters irt Q-register
~torage.

. Discussion:

-8 and -11 usage of ("Z) is not very critical .
-10 changed ( "'G) command to ( "Z) for EO
level 2~ -8 still·uses ("G).
The ("Z), alias ("G) command is very dangerous
and can be accomplished by the equivalent
commands: EFEX. Use of ("Z) as an immediatemode command is a different issue.

P·ro po sal s:

Decision:

(,.. z)

(a)

change -8 and -11 usage of
to some other command.

( b)

switch

-( c)

Remove -10 use of (,.. z) from TECO
and -8 use of ( "G) •

(,.. z)

back to

( "G)

on -10.

OS/8 TECO removed the ("Z) command as of v5.
However, issue is still pending.

Space problem
Problem:

On the - 1 0 , spa c es .a re norm a 11 y i g nor e d ,
however, between digits, space is treated
as pl us. On the -8· and -11, spacfos are
ignored everywhere.

Discussion:

-10 use of space is traditional (but ugly).

Ignoring spaces everywhere is more consistent.
Proposals:

Decision:

(a)

change -10 to ignore spaces everywhere

(b).

change -8 and -11 to treat space as+
in certain constructs

(c)

change all systems to give error message
if space appears within digit string.

It was decided that proposal (a) seems best,
however issue is still pending.

Page 45

10.

11.

Inc om pa ti ble "A command
Problem:

On - 1 0 and - 1 1 , " A i s an ' ex e c ut e i f a 1 pha bet i c '
command. On -8, n-m"A is an 'execute if
n>=m' command.

Discussion:

--8 u s a g e wa s- imp l em en t e d be f o re - 1 0 u s a g e
came along. Normal compare conditionals
such as " N , n L , ie t c . do not a 1 wa ys work
on the -8 because the -B's maximum number
(unsigned) is 4095, yet the -8 allows almost
4000 characters (maximum) in buffer.
When comparing buffer pointers, for example,
anomalous results can occur with "L command
since it requires a signed argument wherea~
the • command produces an unsigned value.
This was gotten around by creating the after
and before commands ("A and "B) which check
the link instead of the sign bit. This is not
a problem on the -10 and -11 because of their
increased word sizes.

Proposals:

(a)

Decision:

OS/8 TECO removed "A and "B commands as of v5.
The problem was gotten around by increasing
OS/8 TECO's arithmetic precision to 13 bits.

Definition of alphanumeric character
Problem:

Proposals:
Decision:

12.

Change "A and "B· commands on -8 to
"< and "'>

The "C command needs to know what an
alphanumeric character is. This concept
differs between implementations.
Are the.character ., $, %, etc.
a 1 p ha n um er i c ?

J<a)

Allow this command to be machine dependent.

It was decided that this command ·needed to be
machine dependent to allow users to search
assembly sources for symbols.

GeneralizAtion of % command
Problem:

The -8 and -11 generalized the 3 command so
that the argument is added to the specified
·Q-register. On the -10, n%q always means 1%q

Discussion:

Code 'fell out' on ·-8 and ·-11 implementations~
Felt to be a very useful extension.

Proposals:

(a)

Change -10 to conform with -8 and -11.

Page 46

13.

Unspecified repeat counts for iterations
Problem:

If no repeat count is specified for an
iteration, each implementation uses a
different default value.

Discussion:

Largest number in machine was a likely·
default .

Proposals:

(a)

J<b)
Decision:

14.

keep this default to be implementationdependent. ·
Change all implementations to make the
default truly infinite.

It is beleived that proposal (b) is easy to
implement and will give users what they
really want.
All DEC TECOs now treat an unspecified
iteration count as being a truly infinite count.

= problem
Problem:

= and == do different things on various
implementations. On -11, they reset the
radix, on -8 they do not. On -8
they print unsigned values, on -10 and -11 =
prints signed value.

Discussion:

There is no great need to be able to
print a value in the current radix (as the
-8 does) without knowing what the~~adix is.
However, I can see cases where a macro may want
to do something in a given radix, and then
return to the user in the original radix.

Pro po S?l s _:

Decision:

J<a)

Have standard say that == prints the
value in octal and does not change the
current radix. =prints the value in
decimal and does not change the current
rad ix .

It was felt that most of the time (except
occasionally on the -8), the user wants to
see signed numbers. Thus = should print
a signed value. The fact that the -11 ==
reset the radix was considered a bug and
has been fixed long ago.

Page 47

15.

Generalized nA command
Problem:

On -10, nA is always the same as OA on the
-8 and -11.

Discussion:

-8 and -11 generalization is fairly obvious.
-10 users may be locked into current use,
especially since user's might use 1A instead
of OA.

.Proposals:

(a)

change -10 to conform to -8 and -11
during next EO level.

(b)

change -8 and -11 to conform to -10 •

.Decision:
16 •

Lo c at ion o f

Problem is still pending.
@

Problem:

-10 manual claims @nS/text/ is legal
but n@S/text/ is not.
-8 and -11 manuais claim the reverse.

Discussion:

In poirit of fact, both are legal on all
implementations. Furthermore, @ is merely
.a modifier and need not be immediately
adjacent to the ~earch command. It may
appear anywhere and merely affects the
outcome of the next search executed.

Proposals:

(a)

modify all documentation to describe
actual behavior properly.

( b)

pick a syntax and modify all
implementations to use it and give
error messages for all other uses.

( c)

Require @ to be first character of a
2 or 3 character command. Thus @
may not occur alone, and must immediately
be followed by S, N,
, FS, FN, or F .
Furthermore, : may al~o not occur al~ne,
it must immediately be followed by @
or one of the above forms.
Ignore this issue.

Decision:

Problem seems too trivial to bother with.

Page 48

Filespecs treated as text
Problem:

-11 treats filespecs as text and allows
it to contain special characters (such as
(ftE)Qq ) and allows it to be modified by
@ modifier. -8 and -10 do not permit this.

Discussion:

-11 usage is a nice generalization and
causes all text-like occurrences to be
treated uniformly.

Proposals:

<a>

Decision:

OS/8 TECO now (v5) allows filespecs to be @-sign
modified. Issue is still pending.

v~lue

is implementation dependent

Problem:
Proposal:

Decision:

'·

Change -10 and -8 to conform to -11

The meaning of the value of the EH
flag is implementation dependent.

J<a>.

Change. TEC0-11 's 3EH to 4EH to prevent
conflicting with -10's 3EH. Reserve
3EH on -11 for future use.

TEC0-11 (v27?) changed EH so that 1, 2, and 3 EH
are compatible with the -10 (although 3EH is not
implemented). The 4's bit in the EH flag is ·an
extension to TECO on the -11.
OS/8 TECO implemented the EH flag compatibly
with both TEC0-11 and TOPS-10 TECO.

. ET value is implementation dependent
Problem:

The value of the ET flag is implementation dependent.

Decision:

Issue is still pending.

Closing of files with EW
Problem:

On the -10, EW closes the current output file.
On the -8 and -11, EW creates a new output
file and the old one is not replaced by the
partially created temporary file.

Discussion:

Both algorithms seem pretty poor.

Proposals:

(a)

Decision:

TEC0-11 quite a while ago implemented proposal (a).
OS/8 T~CO and TEC0-11 also implemented the EK
command to 'kill' or take back the effect of an
unwanted EW. Issue is still pending.

Change all systems so that EW gives an
error message if an output file is already open.

Page 49

21.

Required altmode on nI
Problem:

the -8 does not require the altmode
at the end of the nI command. It is
required on the -10 and -11.

Discussion:

$was optional on ~10 during EO level 1.
The $ is necessary in order that this command
can be correctly parsed and skipped over when
encoutered in an unsatisfied conditional.

Proposals:

J (a)
(b)

Decision;

22.

Make$ optional on -10 and -11.

ProposaL (a) was picked, however, due to space
and· time limitations, OS/8 TECO may not implement
the necessary error checking in .the near f~ture.
Users should always put ALTMODEs after an nI command.

Passing values through Macros
Pro b1em:

the -8 and -11 allow arguments to be passed
to macro calls. They allow macros to return
values. Both are specifically prohibited
on the -10.

Discussion:

Macro arguments and values are as useful in
TECO as functions are in FORTRAN, BASIC, and
ALGOL.

Proposals:
Decision:

~3.

make $ required on -8

J (a)

Change -10 to conform with -8 and -11.

It was found that TOPS-10 TECO v24 already conforms
to this decision (proposal a), however their
documentation didn't make this fact clear.

Negative arguments to searches
Problem:

The -11 allows the argument to certain search
commands to be negative. This causes the
search to· proceed backwards on the same page.

Discussion:

This is a most useful and consistent extension.

Proposals:

(a)

Change -10 and -8 to conform to -11

(b)

Leave status quo, call this a compatible
extension and not an incompatibility.
Change error message on -8 and -10 to
read "feature not im pl ememented" .

Decision:

Issue

~till

pending.

Page 591

24.

25.

Strange W.command
Problem:

The W command is illegal on the -10 and -11.
It is ignored on the -8.

Discussion:

This is probably a bug in -8 implementation.

Proposals:

(a)

Decision:

Problem went away after issue 7 was resolved.
Wis now a valid command on -11 and -8.

Change -8 to.treat W command as
an illegal command.

Alpha and Numeric Q-registers
Problem:

-8 and -11 have two storage compartments in
each Q-regis~er; one to hold strings and
one to hold numeric values. Both can retain
their values simultaneously. On the -10,
:j.f a string is stored 'in a Q-register which
previously contained a number, this number is lost.

Proposals:

Decision:
27.

(a)

Document around this problem. Have the
'standard' say that if a number is stored
in a Q-register, and then the Q-register
is read by a command requiring an alphabetic
string, the result is unpredictable.

(b)

M~dify

(c)

Treat -10 as subset of 'standard' TECO.

-10 to have 'split' Q-Registers.

Issue is still pending.

Concatenated commands which return values
Problem:

If two commands which return values are
placed next to each other, the result
is not the same on all implementations.

Discussion:

For example, if there are 5 characters
in the buffer, then the command Z3=
produces 3 on the -10 and 53 on the ~8.
This is probably a bug in the -8 implementation.
The -10 impementation ain't that swift either.

Proposals:

(a)

Pick a scheme and have everyone conform.

(b)

Treat this as an error.

(c)

Declare action to be undefined.

Decision:

Issue is still pending.

Page 51

28.

Checking for erroneous number of arguments
Problem:

The -8 and -11 do not give errors for
commands of the form 3,5,6D or 2,5L .

Discussion:

The -8 and -11 use the last values typed.

Proposals:

(a)

Change -8 and -11 to give meaningful
error messages in the following 2 cases:
(a) more than 2 arguments are typed
(b) two arguments are typed to a command
which allows 1 but not 2 arguments

(b)

Declare action to be undefined.

OS/8 TECO now gives an error (?ARG) if three
numeric arguments are specified with any
command. Issue is still pending.

Decision:

29.

End-of-line character
Problem:

·The -10 treats any vertical paper motion
character as an erid-of-line terminator.
The -8 and -11 treat <LF> only as end-of-line.

Discussion:

-10 changed from -8 and -11 interpretation during
EO level 2.

Proposals:

J (a)

Decision:

30.

Change -8 and -11 to conform to -10.

Both OS/8 TECO and TEC0-11 now treat line-feed,
verttcal tab, and form feed as ·end-of-line
terminators, in accordance with the -10
implementation.

Echoing of Bell
Problem:

Proposals:
Decision:

On the -10 and -11, the character ("G) echoes as
"G(AG). On the- -8, it merely echoes
as "G.

J<a)

·Change -8 to conform with -10 and -11.

OS/8 TECO now rings the bell as well as types "AG"
as of v5.

Page 52
FUTURE COMPATIBILITY ISSUES
Readers are urged to send. .in .comments, er i tic isms, and
suggestiorts concerning the preceding compatibility issues.
In future issues of the Moby Munger, we will go 'into
detail about other compatibility problems.
In order to
give readers a chance to corrun.cnt on· such issues in advance,
we print below th~ titles of some future issues:
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
4$L

41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.

*Z is CTRL/S on PDP-8
Vertical tab command
Partial error reporting with ?
Assumed : modifier for searches in iterations
F modifier on PDP-8
Label tracing in conditionals
Carriage return input to CTRL/T
echoing of NULL
Matching of begin of buffer on CTRL/S
$$ command
Jumps to left out of ·iterations
== signed on PDP-1~
Memory expansion algorithm
Forced exact mode searches
CTRL/C command
Passing arguments through [ and ]
Case flagging on lower case terminals

Readers discovering other compatibility problems amongst DEC
TECOs are strongly urged to report them so that they may be
discussed in future columns.

TECO TECHNIQUES -

How to Write Printable TECO Macros

Many PDP-11 operating systems have the problem that their
line printer drivers (and sometimes even their terminal
dr.ivers) do not print visible symbols to represent the entire
ASCII character set, or even a large percentage of the ASCII
set.
In particular, when making listings of TECO programs, it is
necessary to see all the control characters and ESCAPEs in
the source listing.
To get around this problem, TEC0·-11 has
generalized the TECO language so that all TECO programs can
now be written using only printable characters.
In the table
below, we show how to write printable equivalents of typical
commands:
Traditional Command
Printable Equivalent
CTRL/X
Sabe$
nI$
$
ERf ile$
<TAB>xyz$
@I/$/
Otag$
CTRL/X in a string

tx
@S/abc/
@nI// ·
t [

@ER/file/
@tI/xyz/
@27I//
@O/tag/
tx in the string (with

~ED)

Page 53

TECO-RELATED DECUS SUBMISSIONS
The following items of interest to TECO users are
from the DECUS program library:
Number

Description

DECUS-8-863

TECO Overlay for VC8/E.

availabl~

Submitted by M. Boudinot. This is an
overlay to OS/8 TECO (version 3) to
allow it to display a window into the
text buffer on a VC8/E display.
It is
written in PALS and makes the VC8/E
look like a VR12. The write-up of the
algorithm .is quite detailed.
DECUS-L-125

PATCH TO OS/8 TECO FOR LINC-8 DISPLAY.
Submitted by Mark Lewis. This is an
overlay to OS/8 TECO (version 2) to
allow it to display a window into the
text buffer on a LINC-8 display.
It is
written in PALS.

DECUS-1,0-264

XTEC
Submitted by Jack Krupansky and Mark
Crispin of Stevens Institute of Technology.
It w·as written from scratch in
MACR0-1,0.
XTEC is a TECO compiler for
the DECsystem-1.0.
It is much faster
than DEC's TOPS-1~ TECO since it
actually compiles command strings and
macros into hard code.
In general, it
is.upward compatible with TOPS-1.0
TECO version 23.

DECUS-1,0-22.0

TOP STEACH
This was written by Jacob Palme and is
an automated course which introduces you
to the TOPS-1.0 operating system.
It is
of interest to TECO fans because there
are several segments which are TECO
tutorials and this course makes a fine
introduction to TECO for a novice.
Unfortunately, it will only run on a
-1.0 since it is written in the GNOSIS
language (a language designed for
computer-aided-instruction) , however
I have looked at the source and it would
not seem to be too hard to write a
GNOSIS compiler in TECO if anyone were
interested.

Page 54

TECOs AVAILABLE FROM DECUS·
0Eerating:. system

DECUS ·Order Number

TECO versiont

R'I1-ll

DECUS-11-288

TECO-ll'v28

RSX-11/M

DECUS-11-333

TEC0-11 v28

.RSX-11/D, IAS

DECUS-11-334

TEC0-11 v28

DOS-11

DECUS-11-265

TEC0-11 vl5

RSTS/E

DECUS-RSTS-11-1,05

TOPS-1.0

DECUS-1,0-264

TEC0-11 v.24
XTEC %,0(427)

t Th.ese su b missions
.
.
are up d .a t e d

f rom time
.
to t.ime.

BUGS Ir~ TEC0-11
Only one bug in TEC0-11 has been reported since the last
issue. Either TEC0-11 is extremely solid·, or no one is
reporting the bugs.
Bugs should be ~eported to the TECO
SIG, care of DECUS.
$ bug in v32

The $ (ESCAPE) command is supposed to discard any numeric
arguments. However, the command in all versions of TEC0-11
up to v32, is forgetting to reset the comma flag, that
indicates that a comma has been seen. Thus, a command such
as H$T acts incorrectly. H$T should be exactly identical
to T, however, it isn't.
It does unpredictible things,
like ,0,.T or something. This bug will be fixed in v34.
In the meantime, avoid using two arguments to a command
that doesn't expect two arguments.

Eat it, EDT® VTEDIT MAcRo for TEco-11
Type any key to
resume editing.

All • commands
take an optional
argument as:
1£8C ozprH•
aionhy(•)
All t commands
operate from
Dot to Maik if
Mark is sc:t

BLUE
Cut

rum

GREY

TECO

Upm

Tm:-t

oa;mmond•

test

cob.mm•

1
Open

Pa!se•

'tA.ark/

Une·

5
Delete
ch.N'·

UM·*

CW'90C'

rftlton

pceo~

ol PIC't!

of line

•

Cu.nor

kft•*

...

l:f.!f'l'U

E8C "'Z
ESC- "'Z

~t·*

Rt.rt

"'C [or] "'Z

cohumt·

2
Bottom

Downllne•*

•

Downin

Dclete/

Top of

All ; commands
arc continuous
when entered as
ESC IMy. (Type
any key to
stop.)

quote•

8Uf'Ch
apia•

!.Ulttb

Return to TECO
Exit from TECO
Kill output, exit

[ESC] "'A Append [No FF] text•
(EtSC] '"'B Delete [next] word•
"D Kill rest of line•
(JtSC] "'Itq Execute [iterate] Q-reg q•
"'P Forward over word•;
"'Gq Get text from Q-reg q
-X Kill line•t
[ESC] "N Non-stop [destructive] search*
"'ft Back over word**
AIJl:)q Cut ten to Q-rcg q•t
"U Kill start of line

'V Toggle display mode

6W Set line• /re-paint
'")Q: ]q Save text in Q-reg q•t
"Y Yan~ next page•
"'\:·Insert ASCII •-ca
BK SP Go to end of line•
DELI:TE Delete previous character•
XSC r"\2C Repeat RED-key command•
i:tOC F Find front of file
ESC H Display help frame
JtSC M Set left margin•
ESC N Get nert word•
JtSC T Select word delimiters•

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