Re: Simple editor (ee?)

[Andrew Doran <ad%netbsd.org@localhost>]

Hi,

On Sat, Feb 07, 2009 at 05:30:12PM +0000, David Brownlee wrote:

>       Wonder if we should add this to the wiki list:
> 
>       NetBSD should provide a simple text editor - its ridiculous
>       to expect a new user to start with vi (note: vi is my editor
>       of choice, but I defy anyone to argue that it is suitable
>       for a new user who just wants to edit rc.conf)
> 
>       Users can add editors from pkgsrc, but there needs to be
>       something *always* available.
> 
>       FreeBSD picked ee (in pkgsrc as editors/easyedit).  Its
>       not to big (78K), only links against libc, needs no other
>       files (apart from termcap). It includes its own mini curses
>       (20K) but doesn't work correctly with NetBSD's curses
> 
>       What do people think?

I think it's a good idea, and I would support importing it into the base
system. I hadn't considered it before. Thinking back to the first time I
used unix, probably the most daunting thing was trying to edit files.

It's BSD licensed, right? I would say that that main requirement is that it
works with the cursor keys! I noticed this in the manual page:

     For ee to work properly, the environment variable TERM must be set to
     indicate the type of terminal being used.  For example, for an HP 700/92
     terminal, the TERM variable should be set to "70092".  See your System
     Administrator if you need more information.

It's a load of old rubbish because everything is a vt100. If the person at
the keyboard is using an odd terminal or whatever they are likely to know
enough to set TERM, or can learn it pretty easily.

Andrew