Subject: Re: emacs and NCSA telnet

In article <4reg45$okj[deleted]> you write:

>>I can read files, I can add text, but I the control key doesn't seem
>>to work in the default set up, so C-x, C-c has no effect.  This is
>>very frustrating since I cannot respond to email messages.  
>
>The authors should be shot with liquid-nitrogen chilled supersoakers.
>It is an incredibly inexcusable bug.

Hmmmm...  Brings back more memories...

Didn't (early versions?) of NCSA telnet have broken vt100 emulation
wrt expanding tab stops?

My first NCSA telnet experience was at NCSA (UIUC).  It was also the
first time I used a Macintosh (hereafter referred to as toaster).

I was there with a Prof. who had been donated some Cray time, and we
were going to try to port/vectorize his reseach code so he could
make some production runs.  We were thrown down into the nearly
deserted "visitor terminal room" (rows of cubicles with mostly
toasters, containing lots of information on how to access the
various toys [supercomputers], but suprisingly little on how to use
the toasters).  I sat down at one of the machines and started
searching for the power switch ...  nothing that looked like a
switch was evident on the front or the sides, so I felt around on
the back and pressed a button I found ... the screen flashed
momentarily, and the machine made a noise like it was going to
start, then nothing...

"It must be broken," I thought, so we moved over to another, and I
hit the button on the back ... flash ... beep ...       nothing ...

"OK, so that's probably not the power switch.  Since there's nothing
else that could possibly be a power switch, let's try some keys on
the keyboard" ...  ESC? ... nothing ... that clover-like key down by
the space bar? ... nothing ... hmmmm     ... that unmarked isolated
key up in the right hand corner?  ... flash ... beep ... smiling
toaster greeting us on the screen ... "Hey, we're getting
somewhere" ...

"Now to launch over to a real machine so we can get this application
compiled and get out of here.  The documentation on the side of the
cubicle mentions a telnet application" ... click ... "No, not there"
... click ... "No, not in that folder, either" ... repeat another 10
or so times, finally finding it buried in a less obvious place than
$PATH, /usr/ucb, or C:\NETWORK ... launch NCSA telnet ... search for
which menu will let us specify the machine ... type in the
machine name ... log in ...

"Lets get some work done" ... try to compile ... find problems and
need to edit source ... available editors: emacs, vi, fred
(FRiendly EDitor, a line editor) ... emacs looks pretty easy, and
there is a well-organized key summary at the cubicle ... fire up
emacs, make the changes ... try to save (C-x C-s) ... screen freezes

"Aaaaaarrrrrgggggghhhh" ... "wait a minute" ... "isn't C-s XOFF?"
... try C-q (XON) ... unfrozen, but now, how do we save ... screw
it, we'll just exit ... try to exit (C-x C-c) ... doesn't work ...
try again ... still doesn't work ... give up, close session and
start a new session ...

"This time we'll try vi" ... log back in ... look for the quick
reference sheet for vi, but can only find a 14 page poorly organized
tutorial with no summary ... get as far as page 4, learning how to
move (h,j,k,l), insert (i), exit insert mode (ESC), delete
characters (x), and save and exit (zz) ... [yes, it took 4 pages to
learn these basics!] ... vi xyz.f ... move down one line at a time to
line 560 (jumping to a certain line number, I later discovered was
discussed on page 9 of the tutorial) ... move right to get to text
to edit ... insert text ... delete text ... save and exit
... recompile ... "Hmmmm, it still doesn't like that line" ... vi
xyz.f ... move down one line at a time ... "Wait a minute.  That's
not what the line looked like when we last edited it" ... change
line, again ... save and exit ... recompile ... "Still no luck"
... vi xyz.f, move, edit, save, recompile ... &$*&$& ... vi xyz.f,
move, edit, save, recompile ... vi xyz.f, move ...       "Bingo!! 
Something isn't expanding tabs properly.  The changes are always off
by one column" [you were probably wondering when I was going to get
around to the tab expansion bug] ... edit, shifting one column,
save, recompile ... "finally!"

"Next problem" ... "Ugh!  This one is going to need a global search
and replace" ... decide to look at the vi tutorial again ... find
":<linenumber>" for moving to a specific line number on page 9
... scream quietly ... find nothing on search and replace ... glance
at the emacs documentation (M-x replace-string) ... scream quietly
... search for more vi documentation ... none to be found ... sigh
... begin to manually change occurrences by searching (/) then
inserting and deleting ... make 50 changes like this ... toaster
crashes leaving ugly register dump on screen ... "why didn't I
save?"

"how to reboot?" ... try unmarked "power" switch in upper right
corner ... nothing ... try button in back ... toaster shuts off
... hit power switch ... get annoyed by smiling toaster on screen
... try to remember where we found telnet the last time ... 15
clicks later, we've found it again ... log in ... vi the file and
begin manual changes again (the tutorial made no mention of "vi -r")
...  save after every 5th change ... finish with changes
... recompile ... realize that I forgot about the one column fuzz in
the tab expansion ... scream [not so quietly this time] ... edit
file and begin making changes again ... register dump from toaster
... move to another toaster ... work for a while ... register dump ...

The rest of the day was pretty much the same.

Remember, this was at NCSA, using the application and an environment
that was designed to facilitate access into their supercomputers.

Liquid-nitrogen chilled supersoakers may be too kind.