Introduction

sam is a text editor originally written for the Blit graphical terminal connected to a machine running 9th Edition Research Unix. It contained many useful innovations, the most famous of which was its use of structural regular expressions.

sam was the standard text editor for Plan 9 from Bell Labs, and the Plan 9 version was backported to Unix and the X Window Sytem in the 1980s.

This version of sam is based on that 1980s Unix port, with many useful additions and modifications (see New Features).

Installation

Basic Installation

Installation is fairly simple: edit config.mk and then run make install.

The sam command runs sam. The B command adds a new file to a running instance of sam, or starts sam if it's not already running.

Running Remotely

Both the sam and B commands accept an '-r' argument, naming a remote machine or (assuming you're using ssh(1), an SSH host entry). The remote machine needs to have both sam and rsam installed.

The remote machine may also have the B command installed. If it is installed, the B command can be executed both locally (on the machine running samterm) using the '-r' option, and remotely (on the machine running sam) without the '-r' option.

Installation Paths

By default, sam, rsam, samterm, and B all end up in '$(BINDIR)' as defined in config.mk.

New Features

Modern OS Support

This version of sam compiles and runs on modern Linux/Unix/BSD systems.

Improved 64-bit Support

The original sam had support 32-bit architectures and big-endian 64-bit architectures. This version supports 64-bit architectures of any endianess (including, most importantly, x86_64).

Scalable Font Support

This version of sam is not limited to classic X fonts, but can use modern scalable fonts. Inconsolata is this author's favorite, though Courier Prime Code is giving Inconsolata a run for its money.

Simplified and Dynamic Configuration

The graphical elements (colors and fonts) of this version of sam are controlled via environment variables, not X Resources. The table of composable characters is now dynamically configurable (via the ~/.keyboard file), where it was once hard-coded.

Far Better Keyboard Support

The cursor ("selection") can be moved using keyboard commands (a la the WordStar Diamond). A keyboard command (ctrl-k) is provided to jump between the command window and the current file window. These commands are configurable at compile time (and more commands are in the works).

Support for Two-Button Mice and Wheel Mice.

The original sam required a three-button mouse. This version is still easier to use with such a mouse, but can be used with a two-button mouse by simulating a button-3 press using shift-button-2. This version also supports scrolling with mouse wheels.

Support for Mouse Chords

The snarf, cut, and paste commands are accessible via mouse-button combinations ("chords").

Better Remote Editing Support

This version of sam can use ssh(1) as its remote shell. Additionally, the B command works on both the local and the remote system during remote editing sessions.

Command Language Extensions

Various minor and mostly-compatible changes have been made to the sam command language. Most notable is the b command, which now performs a fuzzy match on filenames, making switching between files much faster and easier.

Improved Manual Page

The manual page has been rewritten to use the modern mdoc(7) manual page macros. It has been additionally cleaned up, clarified, and extended.

Support for Tab Expansion

When enabled, tabs will be expanded into spaces.

Credits

These credits are in rough chronological order as determined by the ordering in the original README supplied with the X version of sam for those names included there, and then by order of GitHub commits for this version.

Rob Pike

Original author of sam.

Howard Trickey

Wrote the X version of the graphics library.

Matty Farrow et al

Extended the X version of the graphics library to support Unicode.

Boyd Roberts

Added the external command interface and associated scripts.

Doug Gwyn

Contributed many useful ideas to the X implementation of sam.

James Clark

Wrote troff macros to allow the man pages to be rendered on non-V10 Unix systems.

Rob King

Added most of the things mentioned in New Features above. Rob is the maintainer of this version of sam.

Mark H. Wilkinson

Wrote the original mouse-chording code.

Chris Siebenmann

Fixed various bugs in font rendering, and ported Mark H. Wilkinson's mouse chording code to this version of sam.

Aram Hăvărneanu

Improved the handling of Makefile variables.

Ishpeck

Improved C89 support.

Tommy Pettersson

Fixed bugs in the cursor movement code.

Christian Neukirchen

Fixed various Makefile bugs.

If I've forgotten you in this list of credits, please accept my apologies and email me (Rob King) at jking@deadpixi.com to be added.

Copyright and License

The authors of this software are Rob Pike and Howard Trickey. Copyright (c) 1998 by Lucent Technologies.

Rob King made some changes. Those changes, Copyright (c) 2014-2015 by Rob King.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any purpose without fee is hereby granted, provided that this entire notice is included in all copies of any software which is or includes a copy or modification of this software and in all copies of the supporting documentation for such software.

THIS SOFTWARE IS BEING PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY. IN PARTICULAR, NEITHER THE AUTHORS NOR LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES MAKE ANY REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE MERCHANTABILITY OF THIS SOFTWARE OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.