A network screen editor implementation

Abstract

A screen-based editor has been implemented by the authors. Starting from the view that the screen image should at all times reflect the intended contents of the file, a scheme has been developed which requires the minimum compromise from this philosophy but at the same time provides a sophisticated tool which can be accessed from unmodified low-cost ASCII terminals connected via a local area network. Good performance is achieved by the adoption of a special buffer forwarding technique in the terminal concentrator machines. A further design goal was that the user's view of the editor should be independent of either the terminal type or of the host machine operating system.