From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 09f6f443 for ; Fri, 10 Jan 2020 17:18:38 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id B5054949A9; Sat, 11 Jan 2020 03:18:37 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E313793D85; Sat, 11 Jan 2020 03:18:16 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 8994593D85; Sat, 11 Jan 2020 03:18:13 +1000 (AEST) Received: from frieza.hoshinet.org (ks3374089.kimsufi.com [37.187.103.66]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B83FB93D07 for ; Sat, 11 Jan 2020 03:18:11 +1000 (AEST) Received: by frieza.hoshinet.org (Postfix, from userid 1005) id 2037F1C8C79B; Fri, 10 Jan 2020 12:18:10 -0500 (EST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by frieza.hoshinet.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 133911C8C798; Fri, 10 Jan 2020 12:18:10 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2020 12:18:09 -0500 (EST) From: Steve Nickolas X-X-Sender: nicci@frieza.hoshinet.org To: Dan Cross In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: <9c507ef665851fd21ecdf0e23136dc86@firemail.de> <1ippPk-8PE-00@marmaro.de> User-Agent: Alpine 2.02 (BSF 1266 2009-07-14) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Subject: Re: [TUHS] screen editors X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: TUHS main list Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" On Fri, 10 Jan 2020, Dan Cross wrote: > On Fri, Jan 10, 2020 at 10:39 AM Nemo Nusquam wrote: > >> In earlier days, my wife was given email by telnetting to an SGI system >> and using elm. One day, I visited her office as she was composing a >> message. Intrigued, I asked her what the editor was. She did not know >> and pointed to her cheat-sheet listing editor commands. One was ^X^C to >> exit-and-send. She is not a programmer and I was a bit surprised at >> their choice. >> > > Hmm, I'm actually kind of not. Starting users off with a modal editor (that > starts in command mode, no less!) can be surprising for novices; with > emacs, at least you can start typing text and, well, see text. This is one of the reasons I liked E when I first used it: it was modal, but it started in edit mode. (Also you KNEW what mode you were in, which I understand isn't always the case with vi, although it usually is in the clones iirc?) > I think that one of the smartest things Marc Crispin ever did was write > `pico` to go with `pine`. A simple editor targeted at the novice was really > useful for casual and/or new users, particularly as the Internet spread and > an account on a Unix system was the default introduction to email etc for > so many. And I still use nano - which is a rewrite of pico. pico Just Works(R)(TM)(C), and it's not enormous. nano adds a few things I like, but the UI is the same. Heck...I still use PINE and am sending this message from it ;) -uso.