Subject: Default 'set -o emacs' (Was: CVS commit: basesrc/bin/ksh)
To: Frederick Bruckman <fredb@immanent.net>
From: David Brownlee <abs@netbsd.org>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 10/03/2002 19:04:43
On Sat, 28 Sep 2002, Frederick Bruckman wrote:

> The real question is, how do we want to represent ourselves to
> first-time users? I have used "csh" myself for years, and I currently
> favor "ksh" with "set -o vi", but it's no fun explaining how that
> works to otherwise knowledgable and intelligent people who are not
> proficient with "vi". I've come to believe that "ksh" with "set -o
> emacs" would let us present the best "first impression", which is why
> I would be happy to see that become root's default shell, and the
> default shell for "adduser", too.

	So... should we default to 'set -o emacs' in the default .profile
	files for sh/ksh. This would be an obvious convenience win for
	single user mode.

	The two issues I see would be:
	    - If someone has mapped EOF to one of the emacs movement keys
	      sh at least ignores it. This is a bug and should be fixed.
	      (There are no problems with other keys such as intr and erase).
	    - People need to use ^V to insert control characters.

	I can see the second being annoying for some people who just Do Not
	Want command line editing, but is that annoyance small enough that
	we can ask them to ajust their default .profiles to turn it off,
	when weighed against the convenience for so many others?

-- 
		David/absolute          -- www.netbsd.org: No hype required --