Date: Fri, 24 May 96 07:42:43 -0500 From: Mike Eggleston <mikee@sys8.wfc.com> To: stephen@dcs.rhbnc.ac.uk Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: editors Message-ID: <9605241242.AA02226@sys8.wfc.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.OSF.3.91.960524003952.1662A-100000@platon> (stephen@dcs.rhbnc.ac.uk)
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>>>>> """ == " Stephen P Butler" <stephen@dcs.rhbnc.ac.uk> writes: > On Thu, 23 May 1996, Paul Richards wrote: >> Providing new tools to make life easier doesn't bother >> me. Redefining what the normal unix environment is does bother me. > Paul, you're a bright guy, but sometimes we all need to let the past > go, shed a tear for it, then fix the problems and move on. > To sum up, I'd advocate an editor which didn't didn't require a PhD > in human/computer non-interaction to just edit a file so you could > get going, while having the faith that people who know what they're > doing will know what they're doing and will therefore do it. > To be honest, I guess this is a religious, rather a technical issue, > but maybe everybody can come to agreement on this based on common > sense. If you think I'm way off base, feel free to flame me, > hopefully I'll learn something from the discussion. No doubt my > technical competance, intelligence, sanity, spelling, grammar, brand > of deodorant etc. may also be brought into question, but hey that's > life. Frankly, I like vi and have since I figured out how it was designed. There has never been a faster editor. I agree that it is cryptic and I tell each individual that I train on Unix that it is cryptic, but I help them get through it and to become productive with whatever they need to do. If it is an issue of providing another editor on the boot disk to make things easier, why not simply provide an electronic cheat-sheet on vi for people to download and maybe add an extra page on basic vi commands in the little book that comes with the cd-rom jewel case? I do believe that it is a religious war rather than a technical one, and I agree with Paul that adding something new to Unix is ok, but not redefining Unix. True that bad things should be left in the past and new things should be used, as necessary, which is why we have X-Windows and so many other neat and fun things. Maybe it would be a good thing to make the boot, config editor on a minimal boot disk pico, but I wouldn't like it. It may be good for new users/experimenters, but not for old geeks like me. Much of the acceptance of free unix systems relies on the old folks accepting and using the system and it must be a system that they are comfortable and familiar with. Otherwise, get an entirely different os and don't call it Unix.
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