TPU

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 Text Processing Unit, the core of several DEC text editors

 Maintainer: HewlettPackard
 Homepage:   http://www.hp.com
 Manual:     http://www.sysworks.com.au/disk$axpdocjun031/opsys/vmsos731/vmsos731/6018/6018pro.html
              http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/73final/6021/6021PRO.HTML (for EVE)
 Family:     DecFamily
 Platform:   VAX/VMS, OpenVMS
 License:    Commercial

It fully utilizes the Dec VTxxx series of terminal keyboards. Thus, it uses keys like the SELECT and INSERT HERE keys as expected. When issuing a command to the built-in command line processor, simply press the DO. Help is available from the HELP Key.

This makes TPU a very easy to learn text editor. Simply press the keys that are labeled as you expect, and you get the expected behavior.

: Er, as I understand it, TPU is not an editor. Rather, it's a text processing language in which an editor may be written. The usual expression of TPU is EVE, and has spawned variants like WEVE and ADAM. EVE was DEC's replacement for EDT, and of course, there are customizations to make it look like EDT for users used to that interface. --DMcCunney

Like most powerful text editors, it contains a powerful programming language as well. The TpuLanguage is a MacroLanguage that looks a lot like ADA?. That is, it is a PascalLanguage derivative like Delphi from Borland. It has a large number of built-in procedures and functions that can be called to invoke just about any built-in function.

TPU is rather unique in its ability to provide "bound" and "unbound" cursor motion. Simply put, unbound means the cursor can move anywhere on the screen, even past the end of line characters. Bound means that the cursor must stay between newlines and the first character on a line. Bound is the behavior most editors such as ViFamily and EmacsFamily editors.

The TpuLanguage is used as the basis for customizing TPU into EVE and LSE.

Tpu is available only on VAX/VMS and OpenVMS operating systems. However, there is an editor called nuTPU which implements the Tpu functionality for other platforms such as Linux and Windows.

You might say that TPU was DEC's answer to the EmacsFamily of editors which boast rich functionality and fanatical users. Tpu is very customizable yet never really attained the loyalty that Emacs or even XEDIT achieved.

The KeyboardLayout is usually EveKeyboardLayout though there is a native TpuKeyboardLayout?.

The TPU language is powerful enough to emulate .... VI. Here's where the 'VAXMAN' did it: http://www.myths.com/~dpm/vms/TPU_emulation_of_vi.zip

SteveLong?, SharonBurlingame?, and TerrellMitchell? designed and implemented the VAX Text Processing Utility ( TPU ).

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