Re: Adding a simple editor to the base system

[Iain Hibbert <plunky%rya-online.net@localhost>]

On Tue, 10 Feb 2009, David Brownlee wrote:
>       I'd like to propose we add a simple text editor to the base
>       system. The obvious candidate is 'ee' from FreeBSD. Its in
>       pkgsrc as editors/easyedit. Its not too big (56K stripped
>       on i386), only links against libc & curses, and needs no
>       other files (apart from termcap).

I would like to (only mildly) oppose this. My reasoning is that of course
we already have an editor and I don't know how this project is aiming to
add (eg GNOME) functionality - is it all to be imported to base?

Far better imo would be to work on providing a way to create and install a
base system with packages included. That way, a "Desktop NetBSD" release
can be built with GNOME (and ee :) but very easily somebody else can
create a config file for XCFE or "Xen Server" or -nothing- if they prefer
that.

Bonus points if the 'release config' can specify kernel config(s) and
exclude unwanted portions of base. eg If I want to build a web server, I
certainly don't want any bluetooth stack or tools..

Of course, this is advantageous for the embedded and limited-resource
crowd because in the end, they can move external/ to pkgsrc if the cross
compilation problem can be solved.

iain