The built-in editor sucks. Cursor movement is oddly defective. There is no built-in help. Even if there were help, editing this string is only semi-natural for experienced C programmers. The man page hints at a solution, then refers to some other document in some unknown location. Defaults should be usable, but this is not. I didn't even guess that this was configurable until I checked for existing bug reports prior to submitting a new one.
For anyone needing a quick hack, put the following line at the end of your ~/.aptitude/config file. aptitude::UI::Package-Display-Format "%c%a%M%S %p %Z %21v%21V"; -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]