EDITOR and VISUAL are environment variables - therefore did
not exist before 7th edition (or 32V) - that is, about 79. All of
MH, e, ex, vi, and Mail existed long before those could possibly
have been in use. Exactly when EDITOR first appeared I am
not sure (it was not one of the env vars used by anthing in the
7th edition - the editor there was just ed - no need to be able to
specify an alternative.) VISUAL as an alternative to EDITOR
came much later.
So since you were there ... I never did understand the point (or the
distinction) between VISUAL and EDITOR. More specifically, I never
understood when you were supposed to use one versus the other.
--Ken
--
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