From owner-freebsd-current Fri May 17 14:13:33 1996 Return-Path: owner-current Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id OAA20147 for current-outgoing; Fri, 17 May 1996 14:13:33 -0700 (PDT) Received: from phaeton.artisoft.com (phaeton.Artisoft.COM [198.17.250.211]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id OAA20139 for ; Fri, 17 May 1996 14:13:27 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from terry@localhost) by phaeton.artisoft.com (8.6.11/8.6.9) id OAA20687; Fri, 17 May 1996 14:08:07 -0700 From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199605172108.OAA20687@phaeton.artisoft.com> Subject: Re: /stand/ee To: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au (Michael Smith) Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 14:08:07 -0700 (MST) Cc: hsu@clinet.fi, msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, jkh@time.cdrom.com, freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <199605170523.OAA10312@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> from "Michael Smith" at May 17, 96 02:53:55 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-current@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > > > You type and select it from the menu. This is the first thing > > > listed in the help region at the top of the screen. > > > > Really, take a random computer user and try it on him (the less (s)he has > > used computers the better). It is worth taking the best available > > solution, particularly when a utility which will be used very often is > > selected. > > Hmm, think again. > > Take a random computer user with enough experience to be realistically > sitting in front of a Unix system. > > Point them at 'ee' or 'vi' at random, and guage their responses. > > Given that I've been doing just that for some time now, I'll tell you > which works out better 8) By default, unless otherwise specified, "showmode" should be on in vi. I put it in /etc/vi.exrc on the systems I install. It is much easier to guess a single letter command prefix than a control code... there are, after all, only 101 possibilities, and not all of them can be active anyway because of the need to work on dumb terminals. Personally, I think a simple editor is one with a "press XXX for help" message on a status bar at all times. Or map "ESC" and "^C" to help, since that is what the panicing user will type. PICO qualifies, even if I'd never use it. 8-). Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.