Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!lsuc!eci386!woods
From: woods@eci386.uucp (Greg A. Woods)
Subject: Re: SUMMARY: Super-simple UNIX editor
Message-ID: <1991Jun17.220112.7192@eci386.uucp>
Reply-To: woods@eci386.UUCP (Greg A. Woods)
Organization: Elegant Communications Inc.
References: <1991Jun14.004711.25643@yenta.alb.nm.us> <jpc.676756992@avdms8.msfc.nasa.gov> <1991Jun13.052839.9509@hawkmoon.MN.ORG> <1991Jun14.195428.26603@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 1991 22:01:12 GMT

In article <1991Jun14.195428.26603@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes:
> In article <1991Jun14.004711.25643@yenta.alb.nm.us> dt@yenta.alb.nm.us (David B. Thomas) writes:
> >I think just about anybody can be told "use the arrows and backspace for
> >editing, and hit <cntrl - f> when you're finished", and be capable of editing
> >a text file.  Therefore *any* editor that supports these rudimentary
> >capabilities would do nicely.  As far as I know (please, PLEASE correct me
> >if I'm wrong... the editor would be more valuable to me than my dignity :-)
> >there is no such editor available under unix.
> >
> >That means that a unix novice must spend a minimum of several hours fussing
> >with inscrutable manuals even to be able to compose a usenet posting or
> >"hello world" program.  Unix has always been for programmers.
> 
> I agree 100% with what you say! Creating such an editor would be easy:
> Take the C code for either Jove or MicroEmacs and ruthlessly hack
> out everything except the above, plus perhaps a single "search" command.
> MicroEmacs has a simple method for putting a window on the screen which 
> could contain a menu listing the commands that require control-keys
> (you would have hacked out everything involving "meta").

You silly people.  Why hack *out* functionality that *someone* will
eventually want to use?  The version of JOVE I'm using now can very
easily be configured by any adminstrator (who could also install it)
to provide full cursor key support and simple help, save&quit, etc.
function keys.  It can even do auto-wrap.  If you can find someone
locally (like myself) who has built a version on your kind of
hardware, you can probably get a pre-configured binary version that
supports rudimentary vt100 and ansi terminals (eg. 386 consoles)!

UNIX has not always been for programmers.  It's initial official
purpose was to support the typesetting efforts of patent clerks, and
according to one of the BSTJ articles they were taught the rudiments of
editing and file manipulation within approximately two (2) hours of
hands-on instruction.  And that was in the days of ed and ASR-33's!

There are *lots* of editors that support your needs, and the easiest
one to get and use is probably vi.  If the terminfo/termcap is
properly defined, vi handles cursor keys nicely.  Other than that, you
only need to know <ESC>, <a> (for append) or <i> for insert, and
either <Z><Z> or ":wq".
-- 
							Greg A. Woods
woods@{eci386,gate,robohack,ontmoh,tmsoft}.UUCP		ECI and UniForum Canada
+1-416-443-1734 [h]  +1-416-595-5425 [w]  VE3TCP	Toronto, Ontario CANADA
Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible-ORWELL