CFOG's PIP, June 1988, Volume 7 No. 4, Whole No. 66, page 54
VDE Version 2.66 Represents "Last" CP/M Version!
by Benjamin H. Cohen
After at least 20 version releases in the 26 months from May 1986 (version 2.01) to June 1988 (version 2.66), the latest release of VDE for CP/M computers is contemplated by Eric Meyer to be the last CP/M version of VDE:
"Rash as that claim may sound, consider that
(1) All known bugs have now been fixed;
(2) As many new features have been added as memory limitations will reasonably allow;
(3) Many people (myself included!) are using CP/M ever less often.
So: while the MSDOS version will continue to develop, I think CP/M VDE is about finished. Thanks to all who've helped."
The end of the seemingly endless revision cycle is both good and bad. While it means no more new and wonderful features, it also means that VDE won't be getting any bigger. It has already grown to the point where the memory available to edit a file on my Kaypro I at the office is down to 38,059 bytes. Of course I can edit larger files because of VDE's memory compression technique, usually about 20% larger, but with version 2.65 it was 38,154 bytes, and it used to be more than 45,000 bytes. It also means that we can now work on squeezing the most out of this marvelous program with reasonable assurance that we won't be back at the drawing board learning a new or different set of commands next month (or week) or having to manually install a new version that is not compatible with VDK or VDP files we created last time around.
On the other hand, within a few weeks of the release of VDE 2.66 Eric acknowledged, in response to a bulletin board message suggesting that while VDE might not change radically in the future there were good reasons not to declare an absolute halt, Eric conceded that he already had an idea that he might like to see implemented in the program. Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer choice!
In addition to fixing several small problems, there are the following changes, essentially quoted from the VDE266.UPD file in VDE266.LBR: two new Print (^KP) options allow setting the printer top and left margin. At the "Options" prompt, type "T" followed by the number of lines to skip, and/or "L" followed by the columns to skip. For example:
Options: T4L12<cr>
will skip 4 lines at the top and 12 columns at the left.
You can choose a default setting for the new printer left margin offset, originally 0. It used to be necessary to set this up in a printer initialization string and some printer manuals were rather opaque about the code needed.
You can now mark the end of a block (^KK) before the start (^KB) has been marked.
The command to delete to a designated character (^QT) can now be used repeatedly; it does not stall on the specified character. For example, if the cursor is on a ".", "^QT." will delete to the NEXT period instead of doing nothing as it would in version 2.65.
Tab Set (^OI) "@n" sets tabs at column n+1, 2n+1... (not n, 2n...)
MS-DOS VDE Update News
A new version of VDE for MS-DOS is in beta test at this time. The latest released version is 1.21, but there may be a new version released by the time you read this. The principal purpose of the new version is to deal with various problems with different monitors and color display systems. If you've been having problems with VDE on your MS-DOS system the next version might cure it.