From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Nov 24 23: 8:24 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from isy.liu.se (isy.liu.se [130.236.48.10]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A191414D70 for ; Wed, 24 Nov 1999 23:04:45 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mj@isy.liu.se) Received: from lagrange.isy.liu.se (lagrange.isy.liu.se [130.236.49.127]) by isy.liu.se (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id IAA24758; Thu, 25 Nov 1999 08:02:33 +0100 (MET) Message-ID: X-Mailer: XFMail 1.3 [p0] on FreeBSD X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <000801bf370c$decd6080$c29bc5d1@01031149> Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 08:02:32 +0100 (CET) From: Micke Josefsson To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Programmers' editor? Cc: Duke Normandin <01031149@3web.net> Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On 25-Nov-99 Duke Normandin wrote: > Hi Greg... > > [you said...] > OK, I've said my piece here, and I disagree entirely. But it's not > up > to me; I've been using Emacs and similar editors for 20 years. The > real question is: what do newbies think? Anybody want to comment? > > [now here's my 0.2....] > > I've broken the *nix ice --- with an old version of Linux Slackware. > Nothing fancy -- no X. I've got freaking "broken pipes" ; can't get > the printer going; "less"ing every frigging thing that I see; and > "man"ed the whole bloody fs. OK -- so I'm going uphill! > Be-that-as-it-may, IMHO, the last thing a newbie with a throbbing > headache, pissed off and zero patience left, needs is to launch > himself straight hell with vi or vim or jove. > Then i discovered > joe --- no screaming hell, but friendlier, cuz now I have a help menu > at the top so that i can at least exit in 10 seconds, instead of > hitting every key/key-combo. Now please, folks don't take offense -- > vi/vim, emacs et al are all probably great for you guys with all that > experience. > > Bottom line for a simple, effective, newbie text-editor --- something > like joe or DOS edit. I'm in; I'm out --bingo, bango "printcap" is > modified and my bald-spot is no wider. Printer still doesn't work -- > but what the hell. > > Note: -- I used the above -- out-dated software notwithstanding -- > merely to make my point. Once I learn enough *nix, I'll install FBSD > and will most likely be pleasantly surprised - and won't be such a > pain-in-the-d'ariel - oops- I mean derriere! > > I'm outta here --- back to man setterm -- I hate white-on-black. I > fell like I'm in a funeral parlor :-) BTW, Greg -- thanks for your > comments/suggestions re FBSD UGs! > > later......duke > -duke My small experience is that vi is adequate for most config files and smaller hacks, but I always get frustrated when doing normal english (or swedish for that matter:) text. Nedit is a cool thing, however it requires X. My old ms-dos background always makes me want Brief back. I'm certain it can't do everything Emacs (Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift) does but the key shortcuts are mostly F* or Alt-'Letter'. I recently downloaded vital.com's Crisp 6.2 editor and its 100% Brief emulation seems to be just that, 100%. Albeit the LISP-ish macro language my Brief used is no more - can't say I miss it. Unfortunately the $150 is a bit steep, at least until I have some serious programming to do. Fiddling with rc.conf &c is a vi job. /micke ---------------------------------- Michael Josefsson, MSEE mj@isy.liu.se ---------------------------------- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message