Date:        Fri, 10 Aug 2001 02:59:40 -0400 (EDT)
    From:        "Thomas Mueller" <tmueller@bluegrass.net>
    Message-ID:  <200108100659.CAA24618@w3.bluegrass.net>

  | Trouble with echo rc_conf... is the possibility of a typo, in which case
  | the new user is thrown at the mercy of vi to correct the damage.

Actually, if "at the mercy of vi" is the correct description (which it
is for some users), then "at the mercy of /bin/ed" would be better.
Ed is more merciful (in some sense) than vi is ... how to make a simple
correction (like deleting the last line and re-typing it) is easy to
explain to anyone.

The only point of going to the trouble of mounting /usr and doing the
"export TERM=vt100" dance, is if you're familiar with vi, and having it
is going to improve your productivity - which means that you're going
to be doing more than adding one line to one file.

Everyone should get familiar with ed anyway, it is a nice editor, easy
to use, and the basis of most of the rest of unix tools (everything from
grep, sed, vi, ... is built from concepts from ed).

  | My only experience with vi is elvis in Linux, and a few
  | short sessions with elvis ported to OS/2 and DOS.  Not user-friendly.

screen editor people tend to come from two different backgrounds - either
you started with a "point and type" editor, in which case that's the only
kind you'll ever be happy with, or you started with a modal editor, in
which case that's the only kind you'll ever be happy with.

When I started editing (well, after screens were invented) the editors
were all modal, that's what I'm familiar with, and what I like.  I like
all the commands to be keys, and all the basic commands to be simple keys
(no holding down control or meta or ... to make things happen).

That's user friendly - but only to the users who want to make friends...

kre