DEC Text Processing Utility

The DEC Text Processing Utility (or DECTPU)^[1][2] is a dedicated programming language developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) to easily create multi-functional text editors.

TPU is part of OpenVMS. It can be used on a terminal, a console, or on a graphical system like DECwindows.

Functionality

TPU provides text buffer management APIs in concert with window management APIs which are targeted for the VT100 line of terminals.^{[citation needed]} This allowed split-screen windows with scrolling and hence multiple views of the same buffer content.^{[citation needed]} There are also key mapping APIs provided, allowing a wide range of functionality for editing text. The keyboard mapping could be easily adapted by the admin or the user.^{[citation needed]}

Users could write their own specific editor, to e.g. translate text or short (error) messages to multiple natural languages in a synchronised small text window. The text editor is callable, so you could have small text editors built into specific applications, e.g. a simple mail client. You might redirect output from applications into a text window, using inter-process communication. Therefore one could call web services to return their results into a text buffer.

Implementations

• EVE (Extensible Versatile Editor), the first TPU-based editor, delivered with VAX/VMS by mid-1985.^[3]
• In 1986, DEC developed a new version of EDT written in TPU
• Language-Sensitive Editor, part of VAXset (software development platform)
• A version of the vi editor was created by Gregg Wonderly at Oklahoma State University called TPUVI or VITPU.^[4] VITPU is still available via the DECUS archives online.^[5]

References

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This page was last edited on 8 December 2023, at 04:19