On Fri, 26 Aug 2022 00:21:52 +0200 tom ehlert <[email protected]> wrote: > I think even newbies should be given the chance to select from > > > https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.2/repos/pkg-html/group-edit.html
It depends what you mean by "newbies". But if you mean people that just use computers and do not care at all about how or why they work, giving a choice of editors is an idea that assumes way more competence then the average computer user has. These people are typically lost with any program that isn't point and click. The easiest console text editor ever is norton editor and it's clones. It allows point and click provided the mouse driver is loaded. If there is no point and click at least the menu bar at the top provides a clue that there must be some way to get there. "^Q" "^S" at the bottom of the screen doesn't cut it. It just crams more information on the screen for those who know what they are doing. It's a common UNIX trope that "joe", "pico" or "nano" and friends are easy to use text editors. Compared to vi and that other text editor that's only missing a boot loader to be an OS, they certainly are. But I can tell you from experience that there are many people who are completely lost with nano. They have no clue what a keyboard shortcut is beyond at best (if you're lucky) "CTRL+C" "CTRL+V". They have no clue that '^' means the CTRL key. They're never ever going to RTFM because they've never had to so far. They're not going to think about typing "How to quit nano" in Google. You'd be surprised how many people are unable to do this. And they're going to abandon after 5 minutes of fiddling. If the editor is not running in a window inside a desktop environment where they can just close the window, they're going to hit the power switch (which fortunately is not a problem in DOS) rather than spend ten minutes trying key combinations to quit the editor. I've seen this scenario unfold a few times to my amazement. Despite it's flaws, it's a great thing that FreeDOS Edit is the default text editor in FreeDOS. Many are never to bother with anything else. Giving a choice of default text editor is a russian roulette footgun for newbies. -- WWW: https://metalpunks.info GPG: C90CAB7122AC1231
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