questions around install and upgrade apps on an old debian 1.3.1

(1) Eventhough I have an old debian, can I pick latest releases of apps like vi, emacs and install them right away on my old debian system? Or they wont install since my system is too old? (2)Where can I find pico for debian? I searched through the http://packages.debian.org/stable/editors/ and

basic tcp ip command (route) acts weirdly!!

This is strange - I just type: route add -host 192.168.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 eth0 and it gives me error "Usager: inet_route [-vF ] add {host|-net} target [gw GW] [metric M] [netmask N] [mss MSS] ..etc "But if I do "inet_route add -host 192.168.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 eth0 " I get