Below is a subset of commands for minimal useful editing with TECO, the venerable command-based, character-oriented text editor.
* Commands are executed by following them with the key sequence **EscEsc** instead of **Enter**. An arbitrarily long sequence of commands can be entered and executed together.
* TECO doesn't file name arguments passed on the command line. Instead, after starting TECO you have to specify the input and/or output file with the commands **ER**, **EW**, or **EB**, then read the input file into the edit buffer with the command **Y**.
* TECO considers files containing form-feed characters (ASCII 0x0b, **^L**) to be composed of multiple pages with each page consisting of the text between form-feed characters or the beginning or end of the file. TECO will only read into the buffer and edit one page at a time. To edit a multi-page file, complete editing on the first page then use the **P** command to save the page to the output file, reinitialize the buffer, and read the next page from the input file. Once a page has been saved with the **P** command, it may not be revisited except by saving the entire file and restarting the editing process from the beginning. Repeat the process until all necessary pages have been edited. The **EX** command automatically copies any unedited pages in the input file to the output file before exiting.
^ File I/O and Termination ^^
| EB//file//**Esc** | Open //file// for **B**oth input and output |
| ER//file//**Esc** | Open //file// for **R**ead-only (input) |
| EW//file//**Esc** | Open //file// for **W**rite-only (output) |
| Y | Initialize buffer and read from input file (one page) |
| P | Append buffer to output file, reinitialize buffer, read next **P**age from input file |
* [[http://www.avanthar.com/~healyzh/_info_/its.primer|Golden, V. Ellen. An Introduction to ITS for the MACSYMA User. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for Computer Science Mathlab Group. 14 April 1981. <http://www.avanthar.com/~healyzh/_info_/its.primer> accessed 4 June 2010.]]
* [[http://www.avanthar.com/~healyzh/teco/TecoPocketGuide.html|TECO Pocket Guide. Digital Equipment Corporation. 1978. <http://www.avanthar.com/~healyzh/teco/TecoPocketGuide.html> accessed 4 June 2010.]]