
An incomplete history of the QED Text Editor (2004) - shawndumas
https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/qed.html
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WalterGR
_vi keeps a current view of a piece of a document on the screen, while
commands are typed on the bottom line. Keeping a constantly updated window on
a part of the text being edited is now, of course, completely standard and
accepted._

Was screen editing ever not completely accepted? What were some contemporary
arguments against it, other than resource usage?

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ghusbands
Updating the screen has been accepted now for at least 40 years. Before then,
there were computers without screens. People connected typewriters to them to
get interactive input/output [1]. Before then, there were even trickier
solutions.

Sometimes, remote terminals have broken layout, and people use the old editors
again.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric_typewriter#Use_a...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric_typewriter#Use_as_a_computer_terminal)

~~~
WalterGR
I understand that. The article assumes the reader understands that.

I wonder if there were contemporary arguments against screen editing, 40 years
ago.

