I'm a beta tester for nvi, and the current version (1.60) is starting to look
stable again.  Here's the problem:

One of nvi's coolest features, by far, is the ability to hook into Tcl or
Perl.  There are now hooks for attaching perl or tcl scripts, and this is
very neat.

Unfortunately, we can't have this in the "generic" distribution unless we
start distributing perl, tcl, and even optionally tk.

Obviously, we can distribute nvi configured with these hooks turned off,
but then, if someone wants those hooks, they pretty much have to get an
entire source tree of nvi to rebuild with, to reconfigure it.

I'm certainly unconvinced that we should distribute tcl and perl with the
system.  I'm even less convinced it would be a Good Thing to have a
"basic utility" require them to be available, because they're both moderately
large, and nvi is otherwise dependancy-free.

Suggestions?  Comments?

Regardless, when it's next stable, I think we should integrate the
current nvi.  The other big win of recent features is history for
: commands.  With editing.  This *rules*.

-s