3  definitions  found 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  TECO  /tee'koh/  n.,v.  obs.  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}. 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  TECO 
 
  /tee'koh/  obsolete  [originally  an  acronym  for  "[paper]  Tape 
  Editor  and  COrrector";  later  "Text  Editor  and  COrrector"]  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.  The  first  {Emacs}  editor  was  written 
  in  TECO. 
 
  It  was  noted  for  its  powerful  programming-language-like 
  features  and  its  unspeakably  hairy  syntax.  TECO  programs  are 
  said  to  resemble  {line  noise}.  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 
 
  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  lobotomised) 
  version  adopted  by  DEC  can  still  be  found  lurking  on  VMS  and  a 
  couple  of  crufty  {PDP-11}  {operating  system}s,  however,  and 
  ports  of  the  more  advanced  MIT  versions  remain  the  focus  of 
  some  antiquarian  interest.  See  also  {retrocomputing}, 
  {write-only  language}. 
 
  {(ftp://usc.edu/)}  for  {VAX}/{VMS},  {Unix},  {MS-DOS}, 
  {Macintosh},  {Amiga}. 
 
 
 
  From  V.E.R.A.  --  Virtual  Entity  of  Relevant  Acronyms  13  March  2001  [vera]: 
 
  TECO 
  Tape  /  Text  Editor  and  COrrector  (MIT) 
 
 

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