UNIX equivalent to DOSEDIT ??

[Alex Martelli]

phd_jacquier at gsbacd.uchicago writes:

>Hi, 
>I am a beginner at UNIX and have the following question.
>Why is there not a simple way to recall, edit and reissue old commands
>like in DOS with dosedit or scrollrecall, or in VMS ?

I predict you'll get MANY answers to this... I'm answering anyway to
pass the information that on Ultrix 4.0, the C shell (csh) has the
command recall ability, e.g. press up arrow to see the last command
you gave (and so up in the history), PLUS you can edit to your
heart's content with a goody subset of vi.  In the previous release
of Ultrix, you got this function in the unsupported "new C shell".

A more portable solution is the Korn shell from AT&T, ksh; a free
one from Free Software Foundation is Bourne Again SHell, bash.
These two also have a fuller vi-subset, or emacs if you prefer, and 
ksh allows you, with the fc builtin command, to recall any portion of 
your history into a temporary file and edit THAT, with ANY editor of
your choice (full-screen or otherwise) to get, not just one command,
but a full-fledged shell-script, which is then auto-executed.

On a less grand scale, there is mash, the sh-subset-cum-dosedit,
which runs comfortably on, say, Coherent (64K max limit on programs).
It's public domain, too, though the only place I know where you could
download it from is a BBS right here in Bologna, Italy... bit costly,
that :-).  Enough choices for you?
-- 
Alex Martelli - CAD.LAB s.p.a., v. Stalingrado 45, Bologna, Italia
Email: (work:) staff at cadlab.sublink.org, (home:) alex at am.sublink.org
Phone: (work:) ++39 (51) 371099, (home:) ++39 (51) 250434; 
Fax: ++39 (51) 366964 (work only; any time of day or night).