Re: An 'ae' testimony
On Wed, May 26, 1999 at 08:11:42AM -0400, Dale Scheetz wrote:
> On Wed, 26 May 1999, Sven LUTHER wrote:
>
> > On Sat, May 22, 1999 at 11:51:48AM -0400, Dale Scheetz wrote:
> > > As for the editor that should go on the boot floppies? I'll stay out of
> > > that discussion, except: Should anyone come up with an editor
> > > that emulates the old DOS "edit" program, and takes the same order of
> > > space on the boot floppy as ae, I would be in favor of replacing ae with
> > > that editor. (or one that fits the same space/function constraints)
> > > Other than that I could honestly care less what editor is on the boot
> > > floppies, I'm sure I will be able to use it ;-)
> >
> > You said above that ae keybinding can be edited. why not provide an optional
> > /etc/aerc or whatever with said edit bindings ? or maybe i misunderstood some
> > stuff.
>
> This is what caused the probems with the vi mode (I provided an
> alternative rc file).
Yes, but you said the problem comes from vi being a modal editor, and ae not. A
simple edit compatible rc file would not cause the same problems, would it.
> The actual situation is that ae only does a small handfull of functions,
> and it does them in a specific way (save file always prompts for the name
> which some folks have objected to.). The fact that you can load a file,
> add text, cut and paste text, and delete text, seems to fall short of the
> "required" tools for fixing a broken system. Personally, I don't get it.
Myself i think what is most important is load afile, write into it, and ærase
some stuff, and then save it. not more is needed, but i think most problem that
set people at odd with ae was that it wouldn't save files correctly, didn't let
you go out and abort stuff. I even encoutered some case were it would garble my
file a lot, me no more knowing what i changed and what not. This was in vi mode
naturally.
>
> >
> > Also is there a simple ans small help text on how to use ae that could go on
> > the boot floppies also ?
>
> ae, carries it's own help, and presents it at the first screen. Something
> during the installation needs to indicate the name of the editor available
> on the boot disk. I don't see any need for more than that.
yes, but like i said, the help page is too big, and not all that informative.
Also (again in vi mode) the command in it not always did what the help text
said it would do.
So a little help text would be fine, something that ae could call when needed
(called by ctr-h or something like that), and just the minimal information in
the help screen. And you say it will take 1/3 the screen size, that maybe true
in your screen resolution, but on my 640x480 screen, it took a bit more than
half the screen if i remember correctly.
Friendly,
Sven LUTHER
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