Bug#3146: 1.1 installation: ae doesn't work

[Bill Mitchell <mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com>]

dominik.kubla@uni-mainz.de said:

> Just for the record: Using ae on the installation disks is definitely
> _NOT_ a good idea!  I tried to install a system using a serial console
> which does not have any supported function keys.  Ergo you cant use
> ae.  Let's stick with a standard unix editors like ed, ex or vi.  They
> are difficult to use, agreed, but they work!

ae supports both modual (vi-like) and modeless (emacs-like) user
interfaces.  The modual interface uses 'i' for insert, 'q' for quit,
etc.  The modeless interface, as shipped with the upstream version of
ae, uses emacs-like keymappings (^C for quit-ask, ^K^C for quit).
The keymappings are defined in the setup file /etc/ae.rc.  I was
asked to provide a setup file which would default the debian version
of ae to keymappings providing a function-key driven modeless interface,
and I did -- hence your problem.

I could:

1.  leave debian ae as it is
2.  change it to a modual interface (i=insert, q=quit, etc)
3.  change it to the standard upstream modeless interface
    (^r=read, ^w=write, ^c=quit-ask, ^k^c=quit, etc)
4.  add a bail-out escape route to the existing modeless interface
    (e.g., ^c^c to abort)
5.  do something else entirely

Personally, I favor option 4.  Comments?