Al Sowers Quotes

That lack of programmability is probably what ultimately will doom vi. It can`t extend its domain.

Document preparation systems will also require large screen displays.

So Chuck and I looked at that and we hacked on em for a while, and eventually we ripped the stuff out of em and put some of it into what was then called en, which was really ed with some em features.

I think the hard thing about all these tools is that it takes a fair amount of effort to become proficient.

Interleaf is based on the formatting process.

Bitmap display is media compatible with dot matrix or laser printers.

I was surprised about vi going in, though, I didn`t know it was in System V.

I think the wonderful thing about vi is that it has such a good market share because we gave it away.

It is formatted, and I`m tired of using vi. I get really bored.

Since I sort of invented the editor that was most complicated, I thought I would compensate by also designing the editor that was most simple.

I think one of the interesting things is that vi is really a mode-based editor.

The point is that you want to have a system that is responsive.

I remember right after Carter got elected, I was sitting in my apartment in Albany, CA, on a Saturday listening to people call Carter and ask stupid questions while I designed the screen editor.

I use Interleaf for all my documentation.

Just putting the termcap entries in that people would mail me would take hours a week, and I was tired after three or four years.

I had almost rewritten all of the display code for windows, and that was when I gave up.

I think it killed the performance on a lot of the systems in the Labs for years because everyone had their own copy of it, but it wasn`t being shared, and so they wasted huge amounts of memory back when memory was expensive.

Well, limbo is not a good place to be.

The reason I use ed is that I don`t want to lose what`s on the screen.

I actually use vi for editing programs.

But with Interleaf I don`t even have a spell program.

But fundamentally, vi is still ed inside.

I got tired of people complaining that it was too hard to use UNIX because the editor was too complicated.

I got really big into writing manual pages, so I wrote manual pages for all the great features we were going to do but never implemented.

The fundamental problem with vi is that it doesn`t have a mouse and therefore you`ve got all these commands.

I think multiple levels of undo would be wonderful, too.

But no, I don`t generally have trouble with spelling mistakes.

So I got sucked in, got department help, and built some hope of receiving enough support eventually to pay for this program to work under Pascal.

I think editors have to come out of a certain kind of community.

Yesterday I had my tech guy come to the house and disconnect my Sun network, and tomorrow I`m having them shut down my company e-mail account.

I just don`t like to lose what`s in the window.

I think the Macintosh proves that everyone can have a bitmapped display.

Systems are going to get a lot more sophisticated.

Interleaf is very nice. I expect there to be a lot of competition for programs like that.

I wish we hadn`t used all the keys on the keyboard.

I started to write a new editor not too long ago and had it about half done after two days.