Steve Revilak <revilak@umbsky.cc.umb.edu> wrote:

>The 'up' arrow-- on VMS systems would cycle backwards through the command
>history, *without* executing the line.  (ie--as if you had re-typed the
>line without pressing <return>.  Useful for dealing with typos, etc.  I'm
>familiar with 'history' and !!, !*, and ![command-number], but these all
>re-execute the command, not allowing changes. (ie--type the command line,
>followed by <return>).

Others have mentioned all the alternative shells, but I see nobody 
pointed out the way to get csh to recall the line without executing it -- 
the ":p" modifier.  You can recall any line in the history buffer with 
this modifer which moves the command to the last command position in the 
history buffer. Then it's easy to modify the command with the "^".  It's 
also possible to do modification without execution by adding the ":p".  
This allows for multiple modification steps for those of us used to csh 
and not into all the other whiz-bang shells.

-bob