Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 04:01:43 +0300 (EET DST) From: Heikki Suonsivu <hsu@clinet.fi> To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: /stand/ee Message-ID: <199605170101.EAA09562@cantina.clinet.fi> In-Reply-To: "Jordan K. Hubbard"'s message of 16 May 1996 15:13:35 %2B0300 References: <8608.832243492@time.cdrom.com>
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From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>
And for good reason. Let's say you've never touched UNIX before, but
you load this FreeBSD thingy and, at a couple of points in the
installation, it splats this goofy editor toy in your face. "OK," you
say, "Another goofy editor to learn." You spend a couple of minutes
learning the key set and find that it's not all that difficult (once
you figure out that files can only be saved via the ESC menu :-).
The point is not "how easy it is to learn", it is "how easy it is to use".
People should not need to learn an editor to install an operating system,
the editor needs to be obvious enough that it can be simply be used.
The simplest possible job and the most important is to get out of the
editor. In ee you need to type
ctrl-c quit
and it is not obvious from the initial screen.
In pico you type
ctrl-x
and the instructions are in the bottom line.
If possible, the editor should at least use cursor movement commands of
emacs, as that is what almost all unix programs use by default, if not vi
commands (but vi is not the end-user's editor, that I can say for sure :).
In ee all commands seem to be completely random, they aren't even wordstar
ones but completely own.
I think pico is the best solution for small editor which even end-users can
use without problems, but your mileage may vary.
--
Heikki Suonsivu, T{ysikuu 10 C 83/02210 Espoo/FINLAND, hsu@clinet.fi
mobile +358-40-5519679 work +358-0-4375360 fax -4555276 home -8031121
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