[u-u] The prehistory of text editors :-) (was Re: wow, post-tested loops in sh)

[Eric Siegerman]

On Mon, 4 Jul 2016 16:41:10 -0400 (EDT), "D. Hugh Redelmeier"
<hugh at mimosa.com> wrote:
> [...] programs resided on cards and we always looked at the
> compiler-produced listing to understand the program.  In other words:
> [the language] didn't impose on our choice of editor.

No, but your environment certainly did!  If it was anything like
the similar ones I spent time in, the editor was very tightly
constrained: an IBM 029 keypunch :-)

On which -- unlike insert- and delete-line operations, which were
trivial -- insert- and delete-character weren't officially
supported, but were kludgeable nonetheless: while duplicating the
bad card, you would frustrate the keypunch's attempt to advance
one of the cards -- the original or the duplicate, respectively
-- by physically holding it in place while typing the correction.

  - Eric