From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: Re[4]: [9fans] home, end ^h^j^k^l
From: forsyth@caldo.demon.co.uk
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Message-Id: <20010519092126.5AF44199D5@mail.cse.psu.edu>
Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 10:17:50 +0100
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>>the use of escape is a historical choice that i
>>don't fully understand.  (it's been in sam from
>>research unix, and i wasn't around then.)  maybe
>>someone else will comment.

smalltalk80 used esc to select the most recently typed text,
and ``destructive backspace'' also deleted the character preceding
the selection (makes sense given an empty selection);
``delete'' cut the current text selection.

smalltalk80 implementations typically didn't implement cursor keys,
or at least the one i tried briefly,
sensibly enough since most of the keyboards hadn't got them  (whooo!)
(like my Happy Hacking kbd now).  the cursor keys were needed
by DOS and many glass teletypes because they moved a blob cursor
round the screen.