[TUHS] Re: ed: multiple addresses (with semicolons)

[steve jenkin <sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au>]

> On 9 Jul 2022, at 05:13, markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> wrote:
> 
> Unfortunately I wasn't able to find the ``Multics Condensed Guide''
> on multicians.org. Can someone please provide a link?

Couldn’t find the Condensed Guide on the Multicians site.

There was a thread on QED, October 2018
	<https://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/tuhs/2018-October/thread.html>

Starts here:
	<https://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/tuhs/2018-October/016595.html>

This message has the bitsavers link at end:
	<https://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/tuhs/2018-October/016613.html>

This from O.P.

	QED editor - thanks!
		<https://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/tuhs/2018-October/016619.html>

Tracking through the thread, there’s software & git repos.

HTH
steve

===========

On the Multician site, there was information about qedx - a reimplementation, if I read correctly.
Ken is noted as the author of QED, but no docs are linked.

Dev Docs Library
<https://multicians.org/devdoc.html>
	• AW17: Multics Commands and Active Functions pocket guide (101K, 04/01/80, posted 12/18/21)
	• AG91: Multics Programmers' Manual: Reference Guide Table of Contents (128K, 1984, posted 04/27/21)
	• Multics System Programmer's Manual Table of Contents (224K, posted 06/05/22, 838 sections, 821 online)


Early Multics Development and the MSPM
<https://multicians.org/mspmtoc.html>
	• BX.9.06 qed Text Editor, 11/15/68, K. L. Thompson


<https://multicians.org/mgq.html#qed>

QED
CTSS editor written by Ken Thompson. This  line-oriented editor was influenced by the character-oriented QED editor on the SDS-940; one of Ken's major additions was regular expression searching and substitution. Ported to Multics BCPL by Ken and Dennis Ritchie. Bob Daley then wrote Multics qedx as a less functional but faster version. Both qed and qedx are programmable: they support multiple buffers, and a user can execute the contents of a buffer containing editor commands. Doug McIlroy wrote a version of tic-tac-toe in qed. Qedx was the standard editor for most of the Multics development community throughout the 70s. Info segment for qedx command See ted.

[BSG] The qedx language was unambiguously optimized for interactive line-editing, not programming, thus writing non-trivial QEDX "macros" (programs) was a black art whose results where very ugly and non-maintainable and often bordered on black humor. Compare TECO. ted, adding many more commands, is one direction of solution. edm, having no programming language, is another. [perl, with no editing language, is another point on the scale -- THVV] Having entirely distinct command and extension languages is now almost universally considered to be the correct solution to problems of this sort (e.g., Emacs).

[THVV] A nice history of QED, its descendants, and the use of regular expressions is in  Russ Cox's article.


Russ Cox
	Regular Expression Matching Can Be Simple And Fast 
	<https://swtch.com/~rsc/regexp/regexp1.html>


qedx Info page
<https://web.mit.edu/multics-history/source/Multics/doc/info_segments/qedx.info>
	03/03/83  qedx, qx

	Syntax:  qx {-control_args} {macro_path} {macro_args}


	Function:  The qedx editor is used to create and edit ASCII segments.
	This description summarizes the editing requests and addressing
	features provided by qedx.  Complete tutorial information on qedx is
	available in the qedx Text Editor Users' Guide, Order No.  CG40.


[linked from Multician biblio page] - not QED, qedx
	<https://multicians.org/biblio.html>

MULTICS
qedx TEXT EDITOR USER'S GUIDE
	<http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/honeywell/multics/CG40-01_qedx_Feb83.pdf>


===========

<http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/honeywell/multics/swenson/6906.multics-condensed-guide.pdf>

Page: V1-2 Rev 2 06019

TEXT ADDRESSING

QED accepts commands and text as a stream of characters from the console.
Text within the current buffer is specified by (1) line addresses or (2) strings (regular-expressions) in the text 1 ine.

Lines in the current buffer may be addressed in the following ways:
	1. by current line number
	2. by absolute line number
	3. by the value of the current line (".")
	4. by the special character (“$”)
	5. by context
	6. by additive combinations of methods 1. to 5.

===========

--
Steve Jenkin, IT Systems and Design 
0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
PO Box 38, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA

mailto:sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin