A port of STevie (ST Editor for VI Enthusiasts, by Tim Thompson) to CP/M-86 and MS-DOS 1.1 on IBM-PC compatible hardware, compiled with Aztec C v4.2.
CP/M-86 ships with ed — a line-oriented editor inherited from DEC OSes.
While powerful for scripting, ed is notoriously difficult to use
interactively: you work blind, with no visible context of the file, no
cursor, and a command syntax that takes time to learn. DOS 1.1 doesn't even
have ed and predates ANSI.SYS, so it has essentially no interactive
screen editor at all.
There is no lightweight screen-mode editor for CP/M-86, and DOS 1.1's bare BIOS environment makes porting one there even less common. Most available options are either proprietary, CP/M-80 only, or require a specific hardware terminal or heavier. This port of STevie fills that gap: a familiar, full-screen vi experience that runs on standard IBM-PC hardware, either through a VT-52/VT-100 terminal emulator on CP/M-86, or directly against the PC BIOS on CP/M-86 or bare PC-DOS 1.1 — no terminal emulator, no ANSI.SYS required.
- Full vi normal-mode command set (movement, insert, append, delete, yank,
put, undo, search,
:command line) - Two keyboard input paths, selected at compile time:
- BDOS function 6 (
__CPM86__+__VTCMD__builds) — a 64-byte ring buffer so fast typists don't lose keystrokes - Direct PC BIOS
INT 16h(__PCBIOS__builds) — polled rather than blocking, so the cursor position can be re-asserted while waiting (see below)
- BDOS function 6 (
- Composite / extended key support: arrow keys, Home, End, PgUp, PgDn
- Five build variants:
| Binary | Screen/keyboard | Build flags |
|---|---|---|
vicp52.cmd |
VT-52 escape sequences (CP/M-86) | -D__CPM86__ -D__VTCMD__ -D__VT52__ |
vicp100.cmd |
ANSI / VT-100 escape sequences (CP/M-86) | -D__CPM86__ -D__VTCMD__ -D__VT100__ |
vicpbios.cmd |
Direct PC BIOS, CP/M-86 .cmd binary |
-D__CPM86__ -D__PCBIOS__ |
vid1bios.com |
Direct PC BIOS, PC-DOS 1.1 .com binary |
-D__PCDOS__=11 -D__PCBIOS__ |
vid2bios.com |
Direct PC BIOS, PC-DOS 2.0 .com binary |
-D__PCDOS__=20 -D__PCBIOS__ |
Requires the Aztec C 86 cross-development toolchain
(aztec42_cc, aztec42_link, aztec42_sqz) on the PATH, available from
tsupplis/cpm86-crossdev,
and cpmtools (cpmcp, cpmrm, cpmls) for CP/M-86 disk image
management (DOS 1.1 images use mtools' mcopy/mdir instead).
# Build all four variants
make
# Build and package as a zip for distribution
make dist # produces vi-bin.zip
# Copy CP/M-86 binaries to a CP/M-86 test disk image
make cpmtest.img
# Copy the DOS binary to a PC-DOS 1.1 test disk image
make dostest.img
# Run under the PCE CP/M-86 emulator (or emu2 from cpm86-crossdev)
make cpm86testEach build embeds the current git describe output (or unknown outside a
git checkout) as the version shown by the :v command; see gitver.h
(generated, not checked in) and viversion() in window.c.
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
h j k l |
Left / down / up / right |
b |
Back one word |
w |
Forward one word |
^ or 0 |
Beginning of line |
$ |
End of line |
[#]G |
Go to line # (no count = last line) |
^F |
Forward one screen |
^B |
Back one screen |
^D |
Down 10 lines |
^U |
Up 10 lines |
^G |
Show file info |
^L |
Redraw screen |
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
i |
Insert before cursor |
a |
Append after cursor |
o |
Open new line below, enter insert mode |
O |
Open new line above, enter insert mode |
r <c> |
Replace single character under cursor with <c> |
R |
Enter replace mode (overwrite); ESC to exit |
ESC |
Exit insert or replace mode, return to normal |
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
x |
Delete character under cursor |
[#]dd |
Delete # lines (default 1) |
dw |
Delete word |
D or d$ |
Delete to end of line |
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
cc |
Change entire line (delete line, enter insert) |
cw |
Change word |
C or c$ |
Change to end of line |
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
[#]yy |
Yank # lines into buffer (default 1) |
p |
Put yanked/deleted lines after current line |
P |
Put yanked/deleted lines before current line |
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
u |
Undo last change |
. |
Redo last insert or delete |
J |
Join current line with next |
[#]>> |
Indent # lines right by one tab (default 1) |
[#]<< |
Indent # lines left by one tab (default 1) |
H |
Show built-in help screen |
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
/str |
Search forward for str |
?str |
Search backward for str |
n |
Repeat last search |
// or ?? |
Repeat last search (command-line form) |
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
:w |
Write file |
:w <file> |
Write to <file> |
:wq or :x |
Write and quit |
:q |
Quit (refuses if unsaved changes) |
:q! |
Quit unconditionally |
:e <file> |
Edit <file> |
:e! |
Re-read current file, discarding changes |
:r <file> |
Read <file> and insert after current line |
:f |
Show current filename and size |
:f <name> |
Rename current file (in-editor) |
:.= |
Show current line number and character offset |
:$= |
Show total number of lines |
:set oct |
Display non-printable characters in octal |
:set hex |
Display non-printable characters in hex |
:set dec |
Display non-printable characters in decimal |
:v |
Show the build variant and version (git describe) |
:h or :help |
Show built-in help screen |
:<N> |
Go to line N (clamps to last line if N exceeds the file) |
The arrow keys, Home, PgUp, PgDn and End send different byte sequences depending on the terminal type.
VT-52 cursor keys send a two-byte sequence: ESC followed by a single letter.
| Key | Sequence | vi action |
|---|---|---|
| ↑ Up | ESC A |
k — move up one line |
| ↓ Down | ESC B |
j — move down one line |
| → Right | ESC C |
l — move right one char |
| ← Left | ESC D |
h — move left one char |
| Home | ESC H |
0 — beginning of line |
| PgUp | ESC I |
^B — back one screen |
| End | ^Z (0x1A) |
$ — end of line |
| PgDn | ^J (0x0A) |
^F — forward one screen |
VT-100 cursor keys send a three-byte sequence: ESC [ followed by a letter.
| Key | Sequence | vi action |
|---|---|---|
| ↑ Up | ESC [ A |
k — move up one line |
| ↓ Down | ESC [ B |
j — move down one line |
| → Right | ESC [ C |
l — move right one char |
| ← Left | ESC [ D |
h — move left one char |
| Home | ESC [ H |
0 — beginning of line |
| PgUp | ESC [ I |
^B — back one screen |
| End | ^Z (0x1A) |
$ — end of line |
| PgDn | ^J (0x0A) |
^F — forward one screen |
End and PgDn arrive as bare control codes with no ESC prefix on both terminal types, as sent by the IBM-PC CP/M-86 BDOS keyboard handler.
There's no real terminal here — getch() reads INT 16h scan codes
directly and synthesizes the same lone ESC + letter sequences as VT-52,
so the two builds share the same escape-parsing code in edit.c.
| Key | BIOS scan code | Synthesized sequence | vi action |
|---|---|---|---|
| ↑ Up | 0x48 |
ESC A |
k — move up one line |
| ↓ Down | 0x50 |
ESC B |
j — move down one line |
| → Right | 0x4D |
ESC C |
l — move right one char |
| ← Left | 0x4B |
ESC D |
h — move left one char |
| Home | 0x47 |
ESC H |
0 — beginning of line |
| PgUp | 0x49 |
ESC I |
^B — back one screen |
| PgDn | 0x51 |
^J (0x0A) |
^F — forward one screen |
| End | 0x4F |
^Z (0x1A) |
$ — end of line |
| Insert | 0x52 |
ESC L |
(not yet used in vi) |
| Delete | 0x53 |
\x7F |
(not yet used in vi) |
- Aztec C 86 v4.2 cross-compiler (
aztec42_cc,aztec42_link,aztec42_sqz) — from tsupplis/cpm86-crossdev - cpmtools (
cpmcp,cpmrm,cpmls) to manage CP/M-86 disk images - mtools (
mcopy,mdir) to manage the DOS 1.1 disk image (dostest.img) - zip for
make dist - git (optional) — used to embed a version string via
:v; falls back tounknownif not run from a git checkout - CP/M-86 1.1, from tsupplis/cpm86-kernel,
for the
vivt52.cmd/vivt100.cmd/vibios.cmdbinaries - PC-DOS 1.1, from tsupplis/pcdos11-hacking,
for the
vidos.combinary - An emulator for testing — optional; two suitable options:
- PCE CP/M-86 emulator (
cpm86), for the CP/M-86 binaries - emu2 — runs both CP/M-86
.cmdand DOS.combinaries locally, bundled with tsupplis/cpm86-crossdev (from johnsonjh/emu2-cpm86)
- PCE CP/M-86 emulator (
| Binary | CP/M-86 1.1 | CCP/M-86 3.1 | CDOS 4.1 | DOS Plus 1.2 | PC-DOS 1.1 | DOS ≥ 2.0 | Emu2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
vicpbios.cmd |
✅ | ❌ | — | — | ✅ | ||
vicp52.cmd |
✅ | ✅(1) | ✅(1) | ✅ | — | — | ✅(1) |
vicp100.cmd |
✅ | ✅(1) | ✅(1) | ✅ | — | — | ✅(1) |
vid1bios.com |
— | — | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅(2) |
vid2bios.com |
— | — | ✅ | ✅ | - | ✅ | ✅(2) |
- keyboard navigation keys need to be configured
- 25 lines terminal needed
- cursor issues bdos/bios clashing, still experimental, dosplus xios
- no keyboard
--
| Project | Description |
|---|---|
| cpm86-kernel | CP/M-86 1.1 distribution rebuilt from patched and reconstituted sources |
| ccpm86-y2k | CCP/M-86 3.1 distribution rebuilt from patched and reconstituted sources |
| cpm86-crossdev | Unix CP/M-86 cross development project (compilers, emulation and tools) |
| cpm86-hacking | CP/M-86 miscellaneous tools and PCE emulator helpers |
| cpm86-cmdtools | CP/M-86 .cmd file manipulation tools |
| cpm86-ports | CP/M-86 application ports in C and assembler |
| cpm86-vi | STevie vi port for CP/M-86 and PC-DOS 1.1 |
| pcdos11-hacking | PC-DOS 1.1 distribution, tools and notes |
--
- Tim Thompson — original STevie for the Atari ST
- Jon Bradbury — CP/M-80 port for the Philips P2000C