Re: "Point" vs. "cursor" in documentation

[John Yates <john@yates-sheets.org>]

On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 7:04 PM Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> wrote:
> ITS, the Incompatible Timesharing System, was not a text editor.
> Its text editor was TECO -- the very same TECO on top of which
> EMACS was implemented.

Yes, I am aware that ITS was an OS, not an editor.  Similarly the
PDP-1 was a machine with a separate timesharing system (did
it have a name?) and not an editor.

I had no exposure to ITS and so have no knowledge of its history
or the tools that it offered.  Was TECO truly its first editor?

I was exposed to the PDP-1 enough to play spacewar.  I recall
that prior to TECO it had an editor named Expensive Typewriter.
I never got to use that editor.

My reference to ITS and the PDP-1 was merely a conjecture
that if TECO did not originate the concept of point then it likely
inherited it from an early editor, most likely an editor running on
one of those two systems.

Some googling turned up this article in which Dan Murphy
mentions Expensive Typewriter and explains that TECO
originated on the PDP-1:

http://tenex.opost.com/anhc-31-4-anec.pdf

I also tracked down an Expensive Typewriter "manual":

http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/DEC/pdp-1/DEC.pdp_1.1972.102650079.pdf

Reading that manual I can clearly see how Expensive
Typewriter gave rise to TECO.  That said ET was entirely
line-oriented.  I conclude that TECO first gave us the point
concept and terminology.

/john