PE> I don't know if you are aware of an editor called "MSGED",

Should have said "fidonet message editor".

PE> - but there's a catch.  To do it, I used ANSI control codes,
PE> because it required me to know very little about the internals
PE> of Amiga-specific programming.

MS> Understood.  ANSI sequences can be quite effective, and there are a
MS> few Amiga extensions to the ANSI standard that may help.  Still,
MS> console IO is slow compared to direct rendering of text.  Remember,
MS> there is no "text mode" on the Amiga - all text has to be rendered
MS> by the blitter (or a fast CPU pretending to be a blitter :).

I'm not very familiar with the internals of the Amiga like that. I'm not
even sure what a blitter is.

PE> Are you at all interested in having a
PE> public-domain-with-C-source editor on the Amiga?

MS> Sure, we already have several good ones, AFAIK, but it would be nice
MS> to have something that is portable and totally PD, and hopefully
MS> nicer than GNU Emacs.  :)

Wrong sort of editor.  It's a message editor.  Designed to read *.MSG
messages, search through your *.MSG messagebase, etc etc.

PE> If so, are you interested in doing the work required to make it
PE> a little bit prettier than it is now?  If you are, let me know
PE> and I'll send you the current source code.

MS> I'm interested, but how big is it (archived with lharc)?  My main

The C code is ~700k uncompressed, which is 200k compressed with LHA.

MS> machine has a dead serial port (zapped by lightning) & I'm using a
MS> tiny machine with a borrowed 2400 baud modem and no harddrive to do
MS> mail.  Any files that I DL have to fit on an 880k floppy.  :(

No problem.

PE> Otherwise, you can wait for when I release it officially, which
PE> will just be the monochrome ANSI pretty crappy codes.

MS> Blech!  Monochrome editors are pretty austere, IMHO.  I hope you can
MS> get that code to me.  FWIW, it'll have to be brilliant to stop me
MS> using this baby, CygnusEd.  :) 

I'd be interested if you had a similar comment about whatever
message-base-reader you were using at the moment.  Maybe I should have
checked that you were a point actually!

...

Oh shit, you're not a point or a sysop!  You don't know what I'm talking
about.  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.  Why don't you become a point, it's the proper way
to get mail.  I tell you what, you don't actually need to be a point to be
able to do the Amiga screen I/O, which is what is missing, as I have all
the code and environment self-contained.  Can you dial my BBS, 02-436-1785
and leave me some contact details, and I will make the file available to
you. You can also become a point off my system if you want.  What message
areas do you get besides this one (I only have fidonet echos available, you
may be getting Amiganet echos too, which I can't provide).  Being a point
is REALLY REALLY GREAT, but there is a lot of stuffing around to get it set
up in the first place.  The sysop of The Three Amigas may let you point off
him if you ask him, and can probably provide the software you need too. 
Actually if you tell him you are helping with a port of a message editor
for the Amiga, I'm sure he will.  I'll send him a message just to let him
know.  HE will know what a message editor is, although I have no idea what
he is likely to be using.

BFN.  Paul.
@EOT:

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