Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!munnari.oz.au!ariel!ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au!luga!latcs1!welsh
From: welsh@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Donald Welsh)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted
Subject: Re: SUMMARY: Super-simple UNIX editor
Message-ID: <1991Jun23.195539.25076@latcs1.lat.oz.au>
Date: 23 Jun 91 19:55:39 GMT
References: <1991Jun14.195428.26603@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1991Jun17.220112.7192@eci386.uucp> <1991Jun18.065340.25187@yenta.alb.nm.us>
Organization: Computer Science, LaTrobe University
Lines: 41

In article <1991Jun18.065340.25187@yenta.alb.nm.us> dt@yenta.alb.nm.us (David B. Thomas) writes:
| 
| I wish I had two hours to spend with all my novice users.  Heck, I wish
| they had two hour attention spans.  Yes, many of them have macintoshes :^)
| 
| The point is ... my goal is not to teach overall unix competence, and their
| goal is not to attain it.  They want to participate in the wonderful world
| of email and usenet, and don't want to have to master a complicated editor.

Aaaaaarrrgh!  And you're helping these dweebs *onto* the net!  Urgh!  Puke!

| Hey! this is the age of instant gratification.

| You don't have to be able to program to use a computer, and you
| shouldn't have to be able to operate a real editor to be able to type a
| quick letter or posting.

We already *know* one need not think in order to post.  But do you really
want to encourage people not to think?

| I know vi isn't hard...but there are real people that I know and love and
| talk to every day who are letting it get between them and complete enjoyment
| and participation in the net.

If, by your own admission, these people are too intellectually lazy to learn
an editor, what makes you think they won't carry this laziness over into the
net?  Thanks, we have enought people replying without reading the whole
thread, enough "me too" postings, enough frequently asked questions which
completely ignore the FAQ questions list, enough repetitions of the same
damned flamewar again and again in the same newsgroups, on and on and
on....  You want *more*?

| Let's drop our "sophisticated
| editor" requirement to bring some new souls to the usenet.

I knew it.  You're my worst nightmare come true.

-- 
Donald Welsh	     |	    His particular sadistic specialty was contumely,
welsh@latcs1.oz.au   |	    which Melissa craved with an abject thirst.
		     |		    -- Karen Elizabeth Gordon