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E MODIFICATIONS

To cut my teeth at trying to bell the cat (to mix a metaphor), I propose
to look into the feasability of making the following changes to E.

In particular I would like to change the way in which the <cr> and <vt>
commands are interpreted, especially when they are used with the CONTROL
and META keys. Most of these changes are obviously needed, but one does
require a change in existing normal behavior.

The normal behavior change is as follows:

	META CONTROL <cr>	enter the LINE-INSERT mode after the
		pre-existing position of the CURRENT arrow, not before.
	META CONTROL <vt>	enter the LINE-INSERT mode before the
		pre-existing position of CURRENT (like ⊗<cr> now does).

Both of these commands should be legal while in INTRA-LINE and in
INSERT modes, and should then cause the current line to be accepted  as
edited before entering LINE-INSERT.

The other change would be to make <vt> and <cr> truly complementary.

This would lead to the actions as tabulated below.

  Mode	      Identified by	<cr> action		<vt> action  

INTER-LINE	→, no _		move → down		move → up
INTRA-LINE	_ showing	accept line, → down	accept line, → up
INSERT		after αI	accept line, → down	accept line, → up
ADD-LINE	→ at ****	accept line, → down	accept line, → up
LINE-INSERT	   ↔		accept line, ↔ down	accept line, ↔ up
ATTACH		   |		move | down		move | up

The following would be illegal in the ATTACH mode, but acceptable in all 
other modes.

CONTROL <cr>	do a <cr> then a CONTROL I
CONTROL <vt>	do a <vt> then a CONTROL I

META <cr>	introduce  <cr><lf> into the text at the cursor position
		  with no change of mode.
META <vt>	introduce  <vt> into the text at the cursor position with
	          no change of mode. This would appear on the screen as an
		  intragal sign but it would cause the printer to skip 5
		  (and sometimes more) lines.

META CONTROL <cr>	do a <cr> then enter LINE-INSERT mode.
META CONTROL <vt>	do a <vt> then enter LINE-INSERT mode.


A desirable new feature would be to identify the INSERT mode in some way.
  This should be done in the system editor rather than in E only.
  REG please note.

One suggestion is to introduce a special character into the text over the
  cursor where the next character will appear. This special character could
  be something that would not be readily confused with normal text. I might
  suggest making a special character by overprinting two normal characters.
  Several possibilities exist, to wit, a | and a - over the _, or perhaps
  a ↑ and a ↓ over the _. Still another possibility would be a | and a ≡
  over the _.
  This special character should go away on a α<space> or any other special
  line editing command, and certainly on a <cr> or a <vt>.

While considering overprinting, what about a provision in E to actually
  permit the overprinting of text at least to the extent of permitting
  underscoring?

Comments and suggestions are wanted.			ALS