Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 21:53:11 +0100 From: Roman Neuhauser <neuhauser@mobil.cz> To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Old Computer Message-ID: <20020213205311.GS19456@roman.mobil.cz> In-Reply-To: <PnBKhQyC8G@lena.kiev.ua> References: <PnBKhQyC8G@lena.kiev.ua>
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> To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org
> From: Lena@lena.kiev.ua
> Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 20:48:43 +0200 (EET)
> Subject: Re: Old Computer
>
> Currently I use DOS with QEMM and Windows 3.1 mostly as a task switcher
> between several DOS-sessions, each with a Norton Commander clone
> run in full-screen 80x25 text mode (bright white or bright cyan text
> on dark blue background), it's doesn't stress my eyes. I use a small
> text editor with block functions and WordStar-like keys (Ctrl-K B
> to mark beginning of block etc.) also in 80x25 text mode.
Is it Text602 by any chance? :)
As noted by Sue, you'll likely end up using midc, an NC-clone.
Personally, I don't like it. Back in my windows days, I loved
wincmd; it probably played part in my disappointment with midc.
The other (and much bigger) reason I dislike midc is that I find
shell much better (wincmd was kind of a replacement for a working
shell). Now that I don't need a file manager (other than shell), I
don't see a reason to use one. You might come to that conclusion,
too.
> My main Internet access is email-only (UUCP dial-up) - it's substantially
> cheaper than full online (we here have to pay for local phone calls
> by minute, quite expensive for me), but sometimes I use full online
> access - PPP dial-up with usual (without PAP etc.) authentication
> (currently Netscape 3.01 and Trumpet Winsock under Windows 3.1).
>
> I know Perl, C, Assembler, DOS commands (command-line is OK for me :),
...
> Please advise which packages/ports to select:
>
> 1. A set of a window manager and a graphical web-browser
> able to use TrueColor 640x480 mode and HiColor 800x600 mode.
This is the X server's job, AFAIK. Xfree86-3.3.6 is "in the base
system", i. e. if you choose to install X during the system
installation, you'll get that version. Otherwise, 4.1.x is in the
ports; you'll want to install it from the packages on the cd's. It
took a few hours to build on a Celeron 800 w/ 128 megs RAM.
> Besides browser in full-screen graphical mode,
You're accustomed to Netscape 3. That one is in the ports (and
packages), too.
> the window manager must support several switchable from keyboard
> (I rarely use mouse except with web-browser) sessions using
> full-screen 80x25 text mode.
Looks like it's been some time since your unix days (or things
changed so much? I don't know, I'm a greenhorn myself). You're
confusing two things: if you want several 80x25 (or other) text-mode
screens, you don't need X. FreeBSD has 8 consoles by default; you
switch between them with alt+F[1-8]. If you want several graphical
screens (or "workspaces"), that's you window manager's job.
I use blackbox. Light, doesn't take space on the screen. It doesn't
handle keyboard shortcuts itself, but uses a standalone app (bbkeys)
instead. I have it configured to switch wokspaces, windows,
move/resize windows, start apps. It's not perfect though. You might
want to try ratpoison, which shoud be (never used it myself) a
completely "mouseless" window manager.
> Browser must be able to work not only online, but also offline,
do you mean "able to browse cached pages offline"? if netscape 3
does this in windows, it should do this in unix, too.
> be launched from a mail client (if HTML source of web-page
> arrived as an attachment to a letter)
that (invoking browser) is your mail client's job. I use mutt: it's
console based (like, say, midc), which means no fscking mouse
clicking is required, it's configurable... it's great. mutt doesn't
handle launching a browser itself. instead, there's a script that
mutt invokes with the message, which looks up all mailto, ftp,
http... URLs, presents them in a list, and lets you fire a program
(according to a config file). actually, I know at least two such
scripts. one is a bourne (sh) shell script, the other is written in
python.
> and fill forms with
>
> <FORM METHOD=POST ENCTYPE="text/plain" ACTION="mailto:www4mail@...
>
> sending resulting email letter to mail spool
> (later to be sent via UUCP to a web-mail server).
I guess this is a hack you use to be able to queue messages for
later, right? you won't need this in FreeBSD. Any decent MTA will
queue emails while you're offline.
I don't use UUCP, so I don't know much about it, but Postfix talks
UUCP, IIRC.
> The graphical web-browser must support JavaScript and 128 bit SSL,
> so perhaps Netscape or Opera?
Opera is Qt-based, and... Well, it's not the fastest or best written
browser I've seen. "fastest" as in: "if I have Opera open on one
workspace, completely swapped-out, how long will it take it to
redraw completely?" the answer is, six seconds on this box (celeron
800, as I said). And, it's buggy.
> 2. A simple text editor with DOS-like control/keys/commands
> and block commands able to use screen in 80x25 text mode,
> may be built-in in an analog of Norton Commander.
I'll leave this to Sue, as I've never used wordstar.
as for the file manager: you can of course tell midc to use whateve
editor you prefer.
> 3. A text editor able to use TrueType fonts, preferably able
> to read files made by Write editor of Windows 3.1.
no idea.
> 4. Something like copy-paste function of Windows used from keyboard
> (not mouse) and able to transfer chunks of text from one
> full-screen/window/session to another.
if you want to copy text from one console to another, you must use
mouse. in X, marked text is automatically put in the clipboard, and
pasting is done by shift+insert (or MMB).
> 5. A voice/sound spectrum analyzer, preferably real-time,
no idea.
--
FreeBSD 4.4-STABLE
9:12PM up 24 days, 3:35, 25 users, load averages: 0.11, 0.07, 0.03
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