I think the whole discussion is important in that it points out
at least one of the problems in documentation of a very complex
system. I, for one, have been using vi since the 80's, and it's
practically always my editor of choice. Why? Because I know it.
Frankly, I've never recommended it for users who only want do
simple things because it's too hard to explain the difference
between "insert" mode and "beep" mode. In life as a system admin
I've actually compiled /usr/local/bin/joe into the binaries as a
default editor for the mail agents. (Alright, I take a lot of heat
around here because I still use elm when I'm on a console. And
I've got my elmrc just exactly like I want it!)
But life with vi is the legacy of UNIX just the same way that
life with MS-DOS backwards compatibility is the legacy of Windows.
MS has been trying to kill DOS since Windows95, but it's an
alligator with it's teeth in their butt they can't shake off.
Nobody past Richard Stallman has tried to kill vi for "power
users" but most of the people I know who aren't old timers use
pico to manipulate configuration files by hand.
So, UNIX (Linux) is both old and new. Removing vi or not leaving
it in place would throw too many things out of whack for an
experienced UNIX user, but there really ought to be some kind of
warning sign for the newbie. Except that we really need hundreds
of warning signs for the newbies. Perhaps someone ought to start
looking into making the skel configured differently based on what
type of install the user is doing.
><Here's hoping this doesn't turn into a flame war>
>A few years ago, I would have agreed with you. However, I have learned
a
[...]
>continue to do so. What's my point? There are a bajillion editors
both GUI
>and console-based for Linux. Don't like vi, use joe (my favorite) or
emacs,
>and so on. KDE and Gnome are a long ways from the original X base in
terms
>of friendliness and power.
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Bill Hudspeth [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>>
>> I agree with you 200%!
[...]
>> Mallard wrote:
>> > Why did Mandrake pick the most geekyist editor for a setup that is
>> > suposto be easy for users?
--
Michael R. Batchelor
9:45pm up 222 days, 5:53, 2 users, load average: 0.23, 0.19, 0.15
