freebsd-dev/contrib/nvi/docs/TODO
Peter Wemm b8ba871bd9 Import of nvi-1.79, minus a few bits that we dont need (eg: postscript
files, curses, db, regex etc that we already have).  The other glue will
follow shortly.

Obtained from: Keith Bostic <bostic@bostic.com>
1996-11-01 06:45:43 +00:00

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CL: In single-line screens, have to press 'q' twice when quitting out
of a ":set all" display.
COMMON: There's a serious problem with error returns -- we need to separate
command failure from fatal error, consistently, over the entire source
tree.
We need to rework all of vi to have three return values:
0: success
1: vi error, continue
2: fatal error, die
Right now we don't recognize fatal errors for what they are.
VI: Change the screen scrolling to not eat user characters... i.e.
g/pattern/foo should not eat already entered chars.
COMMON: It's known that it's possible to sync the backing files in the
wrong manner, leaving backup files that aren't recoverable. This
is going to be left alone until we have a logging version of DB,
which will hopefully fix this (or at least make it possible to
easily do so).
COMMON: The complete list of POSIX.1 calls that can return EINTR are:
wait, waitpid, sleep, dup2, close, read, write,
fcntl(SETLCKW) tcsetattr, tcdrain
The problem is that technically, any system/library call can
return EINTR, so, while nvi blocks (most of?) the obvious ones,
someone may have to do a complete pass and block signals
everywhere.
COMMON: The vi main command loop should use the general-purpose overflow
and underflow routines. In addition, the vi command loop uses
unsigned longs -- should probably be fixed as a 32-bit unsigned
type, and then check to make sure it's never used as as variable
type again.
DB: When nvi edits files that don't have trailing newlines, it appends
one, regardless. This is required, by default, from POSIX.2.
COMMON: Open mode is not yet implemented.
COMMON: ^C isn't passed to the shell in the script windows as an interrupt
character.
COMMON: The options:
hardtabs, lisp, optimize, redraw, slowopen
are recognized, but not implemented. These options are unlikely
to be implemented, so if you want them you might want to say
something! I will implement lisp if anyone ever documents how it
worked.
COMMON: If you run out of space in the recovery directory, the recovery
file is left in place.
COMMON: Should "view" set a lock on the file?
COMMON: Field editing shouldn't be hard to add to nvi:
Field editing file template:
version #
field # row/column start row/column stop
label field # Label string
re field # Matching re string.
field # row/column start row/column stop
label field # Label string
re field # Matching re string.
<tab> moves to the next field
<bs> in column 0 moves to the previous field
COMMON: Let's rethink using an IPC mechanism:
Two way channel, with events passing in both directions.
Load into the same address space (else, how do file permissions) forks
in v_init -- screens get events from vi, vi gets events queued up from
screens.
Vi:
E_CHARACTER, /* Input character: e_c set. */
E_EOF, /* End of input (NOT ^D). */
E_ERR, /* Input error. */
E_INTERRUPT, /* Interrupt. */
E_REPAINT, /* Repaint: e_flno, e_tlno set. */
E_RESIZE, /* SIGWINCH: e_lno, e_cno set. */
E_SIGCONT, /* SIGCONT arrived. */
E_SIGFATAL, /* fatal signal arrived.
E_START, /* Start ex/vi. */
E_STOP, /* Stop ex/vi. */
E_STRING, /* Input string: e_csp, e_len set. */
Screen:
E_ADDSTR /* Add a string to the screen. */
E_ATTRIBUTE /* Screen attribute. */
E_BELL /* Beep/bell/flash the terminal. */
E_BUSY /* Display a busy message. */
E_CANONICAL /* Enter tty canonical mode. */
E_CLRTOEOL /* Clear to the end of the line. */
E_CURSOR /* Return the cursor location. */
E_DELETELN /* Delete a line. */
E_DISCARD /* Discard a screen. */
E_EXADJUST /* Ex: screen adjustment routine. */
E_FMAP /* Set a function key. */
E_GETKEY /* Get a key event. */
E_INSERTLN /* Insert a line. */
E_MOVE /* Move the cursor. */
E_MESSAGE /* Message or ex output. */
E_REFRESH /* Refresh the screen. */
E_RESIZE /* Resize two screens. */
E_SPLIT /* Split the screen. */
E_SUSPEND /* Suspend the editor. */
EX: It would be nice to inverse video the replaced text during
interactive substitute.
EX: The :args command should put the current file name out in reverse
video. This isn't going to be easy, currently only full lines can
be in reverse video, not just parts.
TK: We currently permit the user to change the lines, columns and term
edit options. Shouldn't that be illegal in tknvi?
VI: The strings found by searches should be highlighted until the next
character is entered.
VI: Display a split vi screen for the :help command.
VI: When getting a key for a continue screen, we should always read from
the terminal, not from a mapped key.
VI: The sentence, paragraph and section movement commands don't match
historic practice in some boundary cases. This should be left
alone until POSIX 1003.2 makes up its mind.
VI: The vs_sm_fill routine should scroll if possible, not always redraw.
VI: Think about setting a dirty/inuse bits on the lines of the SMAP
structure. That way the message routines could steal lines and
refresh would continue to work, because it would know not to touch
the lines that were in use.