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From: nigel@9fs.org
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] text editor
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 11:22:02 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20020426102202.6F2FC1998C@mail.cse.psu.edu> (raw)

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In my ignorant youth, I once used em(1), so called Ed for Mortals.  I
can't now remember what the differences were.  Perhaps it printed
'huh?'  rather than '?'  to be more 'helpful'.  Anyhow, I only had to
transpose 'e' to 'r' once when invoking it (easily done, even on
boyd's keyboard) to decide never to use it again.


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> Im in desperate need of a text editor that can deal with a keyboard
> intensive user

/bin/ed (or sam -d): as keyboard-intensive as you could wish for!

see attachment (god know where it came from, but it amused me)


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When I log into my Xenix system with my 110 baud teletype, both vi *and*
Emacs are just too damn slow.  They print useless messages like, 'C-h for
help' and '"foo" File is read only'.  So I use the editor that doesn't
waste my VALUABLE time.

Ed, man!  !man ed

ED(1)               UNIX Programmer's Manual                ED(1)

NAME
     ed - text editor

SYNOPSIS
     ed [ - ] [ -x ] [ name ]
DESCRIPTION
     Ed is the standard text editor.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Computer Scientists love ed, not just because it comes first
alphabetically, but because it's the standard.  Everyone else
loves ed because it's ED!

"Ed is the standard text editor."

And ed doesn't waste space on my Timex Sinclair.  Just look:

- - -rwxr-xr-x  1 root          24 Oct 29  1929 /bin/ed
- - -rwxr-xr-t  4 root     1310720 Jan  1  1970 /usr/ucb/vi
- - -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  5.89824e37 Oct 22  1990 /usr/bin/emacs

Of course, on the system *I* administrate, vi is symlinked to ed.
Emacs has been replaced by a shell script which 1) Generates a syslog
message at level LOG_EMERG; 2) reduces the user's disk quota by 100K;
and 3) RUNS ED!!!!!!

"Ed is the standard text editor."

Let's look at a typical novice's session with the mighty ed:

golem> ed

?
help
?
?
?
quit
?
exit
?
bye
?
hello?
?
eat flaming death
?
^C
?
^C
?
^D
?

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Note the consistent user interface and error reportage.  Ed is
generous enough to flag errors, yet prudent enough not to overwhelm
the novice with verbosity.

"Ed is the standard text editor."

Ed, the greatest WYGIWYG editor of all.

ED IS THE TRUE PATH TO NIRVANA!  ED HAS BEEN THE CHOICE OF EDUCATED
AND IGNORANT ALIKE FOR CENTURIES!  ED WILL NOT CORRUPT YOUR PRECIOUS
BODILY FLUIDS!!  ED IS THE STANDARD TEXT EDITOR!  ED MAKES THE SUN
SHINE AND THE BIRDS SING AND THE GRASS GREEN!!

When I use an editor, I don't want eight extra KILOBYTES of worthless
help screens and cursor positioning code!  I just want an EDitor!!
Not a "viitor".  Not a "emacsitor".  Those aren't even WORDS!!!! ED!
ED! ED IS THE STANDARD!!!

TEXT EDITOR.

When IBM, in its ever-present omnipotence, needed to base their
"edlin" on a UNIX standard, did they mimic vi?  No.  Emacs?  Surely
you jest.  They chose the most karmic editor of all.  The standard.

Ed is for those who can *remember* what they are working on.  If you
are an idiot, you should use Emacs.  If you are an Emacs, you should
not be vi.  If you use ED, you are on THE PATH TO REDEMPTION.  THE
SO-CALLED "VISUAL" EDITORS HAVE BEEN PLACED HERE BY ED TO TEMPT THE
FAITHLESS.  DO NOT GIVE IN!!!  THE MIGHTY ED HAS SPOKEN!!!

             reply	other threads:[~2002-04-26 10:22 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 32+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2002-04-26 10:22 nigel [this message]
2002-04-26 11:15 ` Boyd Roberts
2002-04-26 11:25   ` Boyd Roberts
2002-04-26 16:06   ` Ronald G Minnich
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2002-04-29  9:36 Andrew Simmons
2002-04-26 17:31 Russ Cox
2002-04-26 14:52 anothy
2002-04-26 16:59 ` peter huang
2002-04-26 14:10 Russ Cox
2002-04-26 10:27 ` Sam Hopkins
2002-04-29  9:40 ` Douglas A. Gwyn
2002-04-26 13:40 forsyth
2002-04-26 13:27 presotto
2002-04-26 12:46 bwc
2002-04-26 16:33 ` mcguire
2002-04-30  1:54   ` chad
2002-04-26 12:40 nigel
2002-04-26 11:41 forsyth
2002-04-26 11:39 rog
2002-04-26 11:45 ` Boyd Roberts
2002-04-26 10:45 nigel
2002-04-26 11:04 ` Alexander Viro
2002-04-26 10:11 rog
2002-04-26 23:30 ` Micah Stetson
2002-04-26  9:49 nigel
2002-04-26 10:21 ` Alexander Viro
2002-04-26 11:38   ` Michael Grunditz
2002-04-26 20:35   ` Dan Cross
2002-04-29  9:40     ` Douglas A. Gwyn
2002-04-29  9:36 ` Andrew Stitt
2002-04-29 15:58   ` Douglas A. Gwyn
2002-04-26  8:47 Andrew Stitt

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