Re: Adding a simple editor to the base system

[Ignatios Souvatzis <is%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 09:22:50AM +0200, Alan Barrett wrote:
> On Thu, 12 Feb 2009, Arnaud Lacombe wrote:
> > nothing printed constantly on the screen but a F1 help hook
> 
> It's not safe to rely on function keys being usable.  Even when the
> keys are physically present, their working properly relies on a correct
> termcap/terminfo description, and a correct TERM value, both of which
> may be difficult to arrange.
> 
> Keys like arrows and page up/page down are much more likely to work even
> if the TERM definition is slightly wrong.

Keys like hjkl are much more likely to work even if the TERM definition
is (less sligthly) wrong.

Oh, and we already have a VI trainer in the base system ... it's 
/usr/games/hack ;-)

Well, if you want your editor to work in that situation, you have
to use ctrl codes and hope that stty doesn't remap them... or you
have to learn ed. I agree that it's probably the safest "remote
hands" editor when things are broken, but that's *different* from
a fast to learn editor for the beginner.

        -is