Editor [was: Re: DR-DOS]

On 23 November 2017 at 21:01, Tomasz Rola <rtomek at ceti.pl> wrote: I am wondering if I can cut-n-paste my response from somewhere but the last time I had this argument, it was at work, on work systems, and I shouldn't do that. Some of it is here: http://liam-on-linux.livejournal.com/32740.html And a sequel here which answers your direct question: http://liam-on-linux.livejournal.com/42908.html Currently, I use Tilde. Why? Basically, when I started out, I learned the Sinclair ZX series ROM editor, then the improved one in Beta BASIC, then the full-screen one on the Spectrum 128. I even bought the numeric keypad, which is super-rare. I did a lot of word-processing of essays on it, in The Last Word, an obscure word processor app. Then I went to university and learned some VMS and Fortran. I probably used VMS EDT. Then I got an Amstrad PCW and learned CP/M and some of the horrible old CP/M editors, the passable RPED and LocoScript. Then I started working, and learned Edlin, then the DR-DOS 5 editor, then the slightly better MS-DOS 5 EDIT. I also learned the Novell Netware editor, and Xenix vi. I worked with and supported WordStar, NewWord, WordStar Express (totally different!), WordStar 2000 (different again), WordPerfect, MultiMate, DisplayWrite, MS Word 3 and 4 for DOS, Samna Executive and others. All had totally different UIs. All were to some degree horrid. My least-disliked was MS Word for DOS. MS Word 5 switched the weird old MS UI for a CUA one of text-based menus. I learned that and liked it. I also worked on Macs and knew WriteNow, MacWrite, MS Word for Mac, TeachText, SimpleText, and others. Some a bit weird but all much better than on DOS! Then came Windows and NOTEPAD.EXE. Basically, after Windows, all editors were CUA. Menu bar at the top, Ctrl-O to open, Ctrl-P to print, Ctrl-S to save. Original weird CUA cut/copy/paste was replaced with Mac-style Ctrl-X/C/V. That's how _all_ editors work now -- including Kate, GEdit, Leafpad, Geany, basically every Linux desktop's editor. Except at the shell prompt, where horrid arcane old stuff from the 1970s lives on like a pack of zombies. All are totally weird and nonstandard except for a third-rate knock-off of WordStar, which itself was weird and nonstandard, because there were no standards back then. I refuse to even try to use any of them. I want a CUA editor. Standard menu bar, all the standard keystrokes. Standard terminology -- files/windows/panes/cut/copy/paste/clipboard etc. I will not use anything that involves "yanking" or "buffers" or command modes or any of that '70s garbage. Get modern or get out. The point here being that I learned *dozens* of editor UIs in my teens and early 20s. They were all horrid to some degree. The Mac banished them all, Windows nailed the coffin shut. MS-DOS conformed. It's _long_ past time Unix did too. Tilde. I have tried. Repeatedly. The crazy horrid old UI and crazy horrid terminology in the manual and tutorial put me off. I can't get past it. I don't write code. I want no syntax highlighting, no code-completion, none of that, because it gets in my way. I write English and I want a tool for that, with the standard UI and keystrokes. Any additional wonderful editing power is nice but entirely secondary. I don't need it. I don't really want it. But with the big 2 -- vi and emacs -- I have to get past foul fetid stinking rotten '70s UIs -- and the only enticement, the only reason, is vast editing power I don't actually need. I think my choices will offer nothing to you! :-( Yes. But not enough. :-) :-D -- Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? Google Mail/Talk/Plus: lproven at gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven ? Skype/LinkedIn/AIM/Yahoo: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R/WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal: +420 702 829 053