From owner-freebsd-current Fri May 24 15:51:28 1996 Return-Path: owner-current Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id PAA15464 for current-outgoing; Fri, 24 May 1996 15:51:28 -0700 (PDT) Received: from eac.iafrica.com (h196-7-192-129.iafrica.com [196.7.192.129]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id PAA15393 for ; Fri, 24 May 1996 15:51:17 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from rnordier@localhost) by eac.iafrica.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) id AAA02601; Sat, 25 May 1996 00:50:13 +0200 From: Robert Nordier Message-Id: <199605242250.AAA02601@eac.iafrica.com> Subject: Re: editors To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Date: Sat, 25 May 1996 00:50:11 +0200 (SAT) Cc: stephen@dcs.rhbnc.ac.uk, terry@lambert.org In-Reply-To: <199605242000.NAA01650@phaeton.artisoft.com> from "Terry Lambert" at May 24, 96 01:00:24 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 ME8a] Content-Type: text Sender: owner-current@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Terry Lambert wrote: > > > > Gotta get those new user up to speed on pipes and redirection > > > right off the bat! > > > > Huh! Mere child's tools. I vote we ought to give them just a disk > > sector editor. After all, any self-respecting hacker ought to be able > > to edit files by writing the disk format directly! :-) > > Luxury! > > Why, I remember installing Ultrix on a non-DEC drive using only > my bare hands and "dd"... Hmm. Half the trouble with the whole 'editors' thread is that people simply aren't digging deep enough to recall some of the really hairy, insane, and plain disgusting text editors around. If is all very well for some to dismiss 'vi' as an abomination, but.... Anyone with a VMS background remember TECO? Sample TECO command sequence: [1 J ^P $ L $ $ J <.-Z; .,(S,$ -D .)FX1 @F^B $K :L I $ G1 L>$$ The really neat thing about TECO is that pretty much any arbitrary ASCII string is a TECO program that actually does something. So if you get bored _editing_ your text, you can always relieve the monotony by _running_ it instead. (Try doing that in MS-Word....) Start 'em off with TECO. Having mastered that, they'll be saying, "Gee, I didn't know UNIX itself would be so easy...." -- Robert Nordier