Neal Gompa <ngompa13(a)gmail.com> writes:
Oh man, that takes me back! I started on DOS with the MS-DOS Editor,
then went onto the DOS port of Emacs and using DJGPP, then jumped to
Linux years later...
Now *that* takes me back to the days when I wrote DJGPP ;-)
And for anyone who thinks vi is hard to use, try the original ed (not
edlin) on CP/M.
IMHO the default editor should have the following characteristics:
* arrow keys always move the cursor
* insert, delete, and backspace always do what they say
* ASCII keys always mean "add this character" (insert or overwrite)
* Every other option should have an obvious hint on the screen, such as
a menu bar or hotkey line, like:
[F1] exit [F2] save [Ctrl-Z] undo [Ctrl-X] cut
if it doesn't fit on one line, it's too complicated.
(ed did the opposite of all those, btw ;)
(nano seems to hit most of these, although it's two lines of hints and
INSERT didn't do what I expected - and it wasn't obvious how to get out
of the mode INSERT put me in)