from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
line editor
<tool, text> An early kind of {text editor} suited to use on a
{teletype}. The user enters editing commands which apply to
the current line or some given range of lines. These include
moving forward and backward through the buffer, inserting and
deleting lines, substituting a string for a pattern match, and
printing lines. Visual feedback is restricted to explicitly
requesting the display of one or more lines, in contrast to a
{screen editor}.
{ed} is {Unix}'s line editor.
(1999-03-01)