I'm sure this has been asked, but I don't know where, so I'm asking here,
probably again... Is there a way to go DIRECTLY to your editor when
responding to or entering an item in picospan or do you always
have to enter :e to get to it?  Thank you.

16 responses total.

Put a line in your .cfonce saying "set edalways."

thank you much.

What does "set edalways" do, or rather what do you do, after putting
it in .cfonce? I just r, and return >: which puts me in pico (which
is defined as my editor in .cfonce). 

It appears to do exactly just what I wanted.  Before I'd have 
to use :e to get out of that line editor that Picospan always dumped me
in.

Set edalways automatically puts you in whatever editor you have designated
in your .cfonce.  I don't know how you have it set up, but without it I
would always be put in the standard Picospan text collector.

I think the Picospan text collector -- the thing that gives the ">"
prompt at the beginning of each line -- is what Gerald is referring
to as the "line editor".

Basically, the "set edalways" saves you the step of typing ":", or
the equivalent ":e", to get to the editor.

So you'll always drop into your default editor when you 'respond'? 
That would get rather tedious, for short responses (like this).

I find it so, too, Rane.  But an awful lot of people don't seem to.
(I think the lack of the ability to go back and add or correct a word
without retyping the rest of the line is really irritating, myself,
but I can usually type well enough to avoid needing to do it  in a
short response.)

Maybe I'll hunt up a script I wrote once that runs "vi" in open mode --
essentially a line-oriented mode but in which you can do cursor movement
within the current line, so you can go back and change something earlier
on the line without retyping everything following it.  It even did
word wrap.  But the screen wasn't cleared, making it suitable for short
responses.

But then would :e (or :) get you full vi?
(This sounds rather like what bubbles was saying they have on The Well
as the text collector, BTW.)  Interesting idea, John.

I have edalways set, not because I particularly like dropping into Pico
each time, even for short responses, but because I was having a lot of
trouble switching back and forth between editors that word wrapped and
those that didn't.  I find it very helpful to always just be able to count
on word wrap.

Well, I think I'll use the one inquiry a year I allow myself about why
a unix command is what it is. Here goes. Why is the variable "edalways"

Because Marcus Watts is fond of a small Alpine flower but can't spell
it?

Actually, I think it's just short for "edit always".

There, I threw away a perfectly good annual chance, just because I
had not tried all possible parsings. Shucks. I couldn't get away from
edal ways (?!).
That's called a problem in lineb reaks.

Rane, you can still have your question unwasted.  That was *not* a Unix-
command question, it was a Picospan-command question.  Totally different.

Thank you! You have saved my year. 

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