44 lines
4.8 KiB
HTML
44 lines
4.8 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>TECO</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../T.html" title="T"/><link rel="previous" href="TCP-IP.html" title="TCP/IP"/><link rel="next" href="tee.html" title="tee"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">TECO</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="TCP-IP.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">T</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="tee.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="TECO"/><dt xmlns="" id="TECO"><b>TECO</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/tee´koh/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.,v. obs.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> 1. [originally an acronym for ‘[paper] Tape Editor and
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COrrector’; later, ‘Text Editor and COrrector’] <span class="grammar">n.</span> A text editor developed at MIT and modified by
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just about everybody. With all the dialects included, TECO may have been
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the most prolific editor in use before <a href="../E/EMACS.html"><i class="glossterm">EMACS</i></a>, to
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which it was directly ancestral. Noted for its powerful
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programming-language-like features and its unspeakably
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<a href="../H/hairy.html"><i class="glossterm">hairy</i></a> syntax. It is literally the case that every
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string of characters is a valid TECO program (though probably not a useful
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one); one common game used to be mentally working out what the TECO
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commands corresponding to human names did. </p></dd><dd><p> 2. <span class="grammar">vt.</span> Originally, to edit using
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the TECO editor in one of its infinite variations (see below).</p></dd><dd><p> 3. vt.,obs. To edit even when TECO is <span class="emphasis"><em>not</em></span> the
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editor being used! This usage is rare and now primarily historical.</p></dd><dd><p>As an example of TECO's obscurity, here is a TECO program that takes
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a list of names such as:</p><div class="literallayout"><p><br/>
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Loser, J. Random<br/>
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Quux, The Great<br/>
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Dick, Moby<br/>
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</p></div><p>sorts them alphabetically according to surname, and then puts the
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surname last, removing the comma, to produce the following:</p><div class="literallayout"><p><br/>
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Moby Dick<br/>
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J. Random Loser<br/>
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The Great Quux<br/>
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</p></div><p>The program is</p><div class="literallayout"><p><br/>
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[1 J^P$L$$<br/>
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J <.-Z; .,(S,$ -D .)FX1 @F^B $K :L I $ G1 L>$$<br/>
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</p></div><p>(where ^B means ‘Control-B’ (ASCII 0000010) and $ is
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actually an <a href="../A/alt.html"><i class="glossterm">alt</i></a> or escape (ASCII 0011011)
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character).</p><p>In fact, this very program was used to produce the second, sorted
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list from the first list. The first hack at it had a
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<a href="../B/bug.html"><i class="glossterm">bug</i></a>: GLS (the author) had accidentally omitted the
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<b class="command">@</b> in front of <b class="command">F^B</b>, which as anyone can see is clearly the
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<a href="../W/Wrong-Thing.html"><i class="glossterm">Wrong Thing</i></a>. It worked fine the second time. There
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is no space to describe all the features of TECO, but it may be of interest
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that <b class="command">^P</b> means ‘sort’ and
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<b class="command">J<.-Z; ... L></b> is an idiomatic
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series of commands for ‘do once for every line’.</p><p>In mid-1991, TECO is pretty much one with the dust of history, having
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been replaced in the affections of hackerdom by
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<a href="../E/EMACS.html"><i class="glossterm">EMACS</i></a>. Descendants of an early (and somewhat
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lobotomized) version adopted by DEC can still be found lurking on VMS and a
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couple of crufty <a href="../P/PDP-11.html"><i class="glossterm">PDP-11</i></a> operating systems, however, and ports of the more
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advanced MIT versions remain the focus of some antiquarian interest. See
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also <a href="../R/retrocomputing.html"><i class="glossterm">retrocomputing</i></a>,
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<a href="../W/write-only-language.html"><i class="glossterm">write-only language</i></a>. </p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="TCP-IP.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../T.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="tee.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">TCP/IP </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> tee</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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