Re: Adding a simple editor to the base system

[Aleksej Saushev <asau%inbox.ru@localhost>]

David Brownlee <abs%absd.org@localhost> writes:

>       This was originally brought up on netbsd-desktop, now
>       redirected here as a more relevant forum.
>
>       I'd like to propose we add a simple text editor to the base
>       system. The obvious candidate is 'ee' from FreeBSD (who
>       have been including it since 1995).

...

>       I'm proposing it be added to base rather than pkgsrc to
>       ensure it is available on all standard NetBSD systems.
>       So for example a user who is not experienced with vi can
>       edit a configuration file before setting up their desktop
>       or preferred editor, or even if they find themselves in
>       single user mode.

First of all, I'm not even close to vi fan (I think that vi must die),
but I'm also hesitant about this change. ee isn't in particular much
better than vi and doesn't bring much improvement, since novice user
is going to get graphical interface most likely. And if this user is
locked into text console in some way, learning vi is going to be the
easiest part. Thus some kind of cheat-sheet should be enough. (Cross-
reference vi(1) in afterboot(8)? Add a section to afterboot(8)?)

If we agree about desktop-as-add-on approach, ee addition can be done
by means of local "novice" set or even meta-package. If we don't agree
with this optional nature, we're going to fight with conservative
resistance and add software for very little gain, receiving justified
complains about software bloat.

I think that the first we should do is to settle, what is the approach
in general, because adding more and more tools to base system is the
easiest path to "improvements", both real and imaginary.


-- 
HE CE3OH...