Re: ae's vi attempt on boot disks stomps on real vi symlink
Hi,
>>"Ryan" == Ryan Smith-Roberts <rsr@lab.net> writes:
Ryan> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- On 10 May 1997, Manoj
Ryan> Srivastava wrote:
Manoj> It is not as if Debian does not contain vi -- we are talking about
Manoj> a ``crippled'' system, in a sense, because on a first initial
Manoj> install that's what a system is -- it is not a complete system
Manoj> *yet*.
Ryan> What, precisely, is the point of having an entire handful of
Ryan> install disks then?
So you can install a fairly complex system as painlessly as
possible. Though the Debian dpkg system is by far the best package
management system I have seen, it _is_ quite complex, and it takes a
number of subsystems to be at least minimally functional to enable
the installation to continue. Unfortunately, peoples favorite editors
would bloat the installation disks a lot.
Manoj> I think Really experienced Unix people are used to not having vi
Manoj> available during emergency/installation periods. How many
Manoj> commercial unices have vi on / anyway?
Ryan> Really experienced Unix people have absolutely no urge to learn
Ryan> ae. My boss doesn't have the urge; he'd rather install RedHat,
Ryan> and save on floppies besides.
And more power to him. I have nothing less than cordial
feelings for the Red Hat people, they have a nice product. I
personally think Debian is better (I do not think lacking vi in the
initial stages of installation is a strong enough drawback in view of
Debians advantages as a functional system), however, Debian is quite
clearly not every ones cup of tea (wild horses would not drag my wife
away from an environment where she is most productive -- Office 95 on
a Windows 95 machine).
However, my wife (the biologist) also reminds me that the
species which stopped adapting (and learning) have quite often gone
extinct.
Also, I never thought I would hear complaints of the learning
curve of ae (!), with a preference for the nice, simple vi
(!!). However, I do sympathize with people who lack the ability,
time, or motivation to learn ae (There _is_ way too many things to do
and too little time to do them in). I also must extend my sympathy to
people in circumstances that savings on floppy disks are of
significance.
Ryan> I have no urge, myself; I got around this by carrying a seventh
Ryan> floppy (which is now being consumed by the pointless fifth
Ryan> install disk, RRRRRRRRRR[1]) which has nvi on it.
Good. To each their own ...
Ryan> I thought Debian was supposed to make your life easier?
For the largest number of people. I think we may have far many
more ``customers'' who would prefer ae, or at least not object to the
absence of vi/emace/XEmacs/axe/nedit et al.
manoj
--
"All those moments will be lost, in time, like tears in rain. Time
to Die." Roy Batty, in Blade Runner
Manoj Srivastava <url:mailto:srivasta@acm.org>
Mobile, Alabama USA <url:http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
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