Re: Bug#197835: [PROPOSAL]: integrated environments are allowed
On Wed, 2003-06-18 at 10:11, Sebastian Rittau wrote:
> Normally they don't have a good reason,
I outlined a ton of good reasons earlier. See:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-policy/2003/debian-policy-200306/msg00115.html
> except that they can rely on the
> existance of that editor. *If* I set my $EDITOR variable, I prefer this
> editor to be used, no matter whether I'm using a console program, mutt,
> or Evolution. If I wanted to use a different editor, I would set my
> EDITOR variable differently.
I always have EDITOR set, but that doesn't mean I want to use that
editor inside GNOME. I mostly have it set for all those terminal apps.
> Please keep in mind that it is important that the user should be in control
> of his or her environment. When I set the EDITOR variable, but this is
> not honored, I don't feel like I'm in control.
I'm not advocating taking away any control.
> Please keep also in mind
> that there is a reason people set the EDITOR variable: they have an
> editor, which they are used to, which they can handle, which they have
> configured to their needs, and therefore want to use. It is a bad idea to
> force users to learn a different editor for different tasks.
Some people also set it just to cover all the old, unintegrated
applications they may occasionally use.
> Of course it might be a good idea to enhance sensible-editor and co to
> use a different editor in different environment by default (i.e. if the
> $EDITOR and $VISUAL variables are not set).
The autodetection idea just won't work. I outlined some reasons in an
earlier thread.
> Alternatively desktops could
> check if EDITOR and VISUAL are set and if not set them to their
> preferred editor.
But this still implies EDITOR and PAGER should trump the environment's
preferences, and I don't think they should.
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