The phrase disappeared from the manuals at some point. I might have
committed the offense myself: The Research Unix manuals all continue the
phrase, but the Plan 9 ones say:

ED(1)                                                       ED(1)


     NAME

          ed - text editor


     SYNOPSIS

          ed [ - ] [ -o ] [ file ]


     DESCRIPTION

          Ed is a venerable text editor.


I likely made the "venerable" substitution. I regret that now.


Ed is the standard editor.


-rob



On Wed, Mar 10, 2021 at 10:53 AM Steve Nickolas <usotsuki@buric.co> wrote:

> On Wed, 10 Mar 2021, Rob Pike wrote:
>
> > I'm curious when people (other than me) erred and stopped saying that ed
> > was the standard editor.
> >
> > -rob
> >
>
> I actually use that expression in somewhat unorthodox ways. ;)
>
> Like "CDE is the standard desktop environment like ed is the standard text
> editor." (I still consider both to be true even though about no one uses
> either anymore.)
>
> -uso.
>