1. [originally an acronym for `[paper] Tape Editor and COrrector';
later, `Text Editor and COrrector'] n. A text editor developed at MIT
and modified by just about everybody. With all the dialects included,
TECO may have been the most prolific editor in use before {EMACS}, to
which it was directly ancestral. Noted for its powerful
programming-language-like features and its unspeakably {hairy}
syntax. It is literally the case that every string of characters is a
valid TECO program (though probably not a useful one); one common
game used to be mentally working out what the TECO commands
corresponding to human names did.
2. vt. Originally, to edit using the TECO editor in one of its
infinite variations (see below).
3. vt.,obs. To edit even when TECO is not the editor being used! This
usage is rare and now primarily historical.
As an example of TECO's obscurity, here is a TECO program that takes
a list of names such as:
Loser, J. Random
Quux, The Great
Dick, Moby
sorts them alphabetically according to surname, and then puts the
surname last, removing the comma, to produce the following:
Moby Dick
J. Random Loser
The Great Quux
The program is
[1 J^P$L$$
J <.-Z; .,(S,$ -D .)FX1 @F^B $K :L I $ G1 L>$$
(where ^B means `Control-B' (ASCII 0000010) and $ is actually an
{alt} or escape (ASCII 0011011) character).
In fact, this very program was used to produce the second, sorted
list from the first list. The first hack at it had a {bug}: GLS (the
author) had accidentally omitted the @ in front of F^B, which as
anyone can see is clearly the {Wrong Thing}. It worked fine the
second time. There is no space to describe all the features of TECO,
but it may be of interest that ^P means `sort' and J<.-Z; ... L> is
an idiomatic series of commands for `do once for every line'.
In mid-1991, TECO is pretty much one with the dust of history, having
been replaced in the affections of hackerdom by {EMACS}. Descendants
of an early (and somewhat lobotomized) version adopted by DEC can
still be found lurking on VMS and a couple of crufty {PDP-11}
operating systems, however, and ports of the more advanced MIT
versions remain the focus of some antiquarian interest. See also
{retrocomputing}, {write-only language}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {elder days}{EMACS}{evil}{funky}{hair}{life}{line noise}{macrology}{one-liner wars}{write-only language}{WYSIWYG}]