Re: Re: [9fans] Samterm up down key patch

["David Leimbach" <leimy2k@gmail.com>]

On 11/14/06, ron minnich <rminnich@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 11/14/06, Martin Neubauer <m.ne@gmx.net> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm not quite convinced of the merit of that behaviour. The most direct
> > consequence is that it makes sam inconsistent with acme and rio windows.
>
> But maybe rio and acme are wrong.
>
> I guess we can worry about internal consistency in plan 9, but fact
> is, in the rest of the known universe, uparrow goes up a line,
> downarrow goes down, they move the cursor.
>
> We've got page up and page down; we could always use them. It was bad
> enough when right arrow and left arrow did what they did ....
>
> If we're halfway to readline, well, then, maybe people want it, and we
> should have it, and not having it was a mistake all along.  You should
> be different if it makes sense; otherwise, don't.
>
> But the worst thing we can do is fall into the 'it's always worked
> this way' mantra. At that point, you might as well be a Fortran
> programmer.

But isn't that just what you're saying?  You're used to the way
everyone else does everything, so therefore this new way is wrong?  My
original PCs didn't have mice, and I really don't think the first
mouse intefaces I had on DOS were that good.

What Acme does with the mouse is a big step from what any other editor
I've used has tried to do with it, in terms of the clickable text,
chord-based editing and the way it makes you think differently about
the keyboard.

I agree it takes a good deal of discipline to learn to use acme the
way it is effectively if you come from a different background, and I'm
by no means an expert (see my winclear script... :-) ) but I'm trying
to learn it the way it was meant to be used, and I find surprises that
make me wish Emacs were more like it sometimes.  (especially in
simplicity)

However, it's very clear that people are always going to want to morph
Sam and Acme into the editor they're used to, so why doesn't someone
either fork it, or make some editors that are more familiar to these
folks.  Acme will still be useful to those who know it, and there will
probably always be an Acme community or is there fear of the loss of
that too?

>
> ron
>