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SCIM: Ncurses based, Vim-like spreadsheet

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Re: SCIM: Ncurses based, Vim-like spreadsheet

#61

Post by kazinator »

dotancohen wrote: post #57
kazinator wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. There is an ancient curses-based spreadsheet program called "sc" (spreadsheet calculator). It sounds like "scim" is to "sc" vaguely like "vim" is to "vi": new program with more features cloning/imitating ancient program. "vi" was written by Bill Joy in 1979. "sc" by James Gosling in 1981. sc-im claims to be based on "sc". It's a direct lineage unrelated to GUI spreadsheets.

Gosling wrote sc? I had no idea. I was an scim user before moving to visidata like another poster mentioned, so I kinda-sorta feel like an sc user. For those who don't know, James Gosling invented a popular VM-based "write once, test everywhere" programming language named after a tree. Then named after a coffee.

Gosling also invented a structural macro processor for C, in 1989.

Ace: a syntax-driven C preprocessor: https://swtch.com/gosling89ace.pdf

In 1981, Gosling Emacs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gosling_Emacs

Richard Stallman used Gosling Emacs as the starting code for GNU Emacs.

Re: SCIM: Ncurses based, Vim-like spreadsheet

#64

Post by Shared404 »

5- wrote: post #24
galdosdi wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean precisely by "character addressing UI"? I can infer approximately what you mean, but I had never heard that phrase before and could not Google it, so was wondering how precisely you define that as presumably slightly distinct from other more common terms for text mode applications.

thanks! i meant 'cursor-addressing', to avoid the ambiguous term 'tui', which usually (and per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text-based_user_interface ) means cursor-addressing, but nominally also includes actual text-based user interfaces, as seen in e.g. the traditional unix utilities.

I've always seen CLI used for unix style utilities and TUI used for cursor-addressing/ncurses style interfaces fwiw.

Re: SCIM: Ncurses based, Vim-like spreadsheet

#65

Post by hello_computer »

I think this is mostly dead for a reason. TUI nostalgia is an itch for software people, but software people already have more powerful things--like SQL, Pandas, APL, etc... while spreadsheets are for people who don't want to scale those learning curves, and those people already have Excel.

Re: SCIM: Ncurses based, Vim-like spreadsheet

#66

Post by skywal_l »

asdefghyk wrote: post #17

This article made me recall a text based GUI? I used in commercial programming tool named "Vermont Views" previously named "Windows for Data" This was around about 1990 or earlier? . It was a tool that allowed relatively easy development of text based user interfaces Old Ad for it https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1992-01/page/n25/m... Google the words >> +"Windows for Data" Vermont Views << for lots other li…

A little bit like Turbo Vision[0] then. Turbo vision which has now a free port to modern terminal btw [1].

PS: Jeez, so much ads in Byte Magazine! Or is it because I haven't open a magazine in a couple of decades and forgot how cluttered they were??

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Vision

[1] https://github.com/magiblot/tvision

Re: SCIM: Ncurses based, Vim-like spreadsheet

#68

Post by llm_trw »

djha-skin wrote: post #62

Where have you been all my life. This fills such a hole in the market -- a Vim-like terminal spreadsheet tool. The terminal tools have gotten so much better in the last few years. There's a real Renaissance happening.

The terminal has gotten good because the GUIs have gotten useless.

Now we are doing the same thing to the terminal.

I'd rather have a poor UI that works than a flashy one that breaks, which is what we'll get in 10 years. Just like with regular UIs.

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