On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 10:39:25AM -0400, Rob Owens wrote:
> I noted some people saying they were confused by vi. Here are basic
> instructions to get you far enough that you can install your editor of
> choice.

All that you need to deal with vi is:
Alt-F2 (possibly Ctrl-Alt-F2) killall -9 vi

Then, you can use cat to display a file's contents, and sed or echo >>
to edit needed files (typically /etc/apt/sources.list and
/etc/network/interfaces) enough to let you apt-get install an usable editor.

This is not as painful with nano, as despite being a bad editor, at least
it's not grossly counterintuitive. Basics like navigating with cursor keys,
typing and deleting with backspace work. It's vi which is the only editor I
know to fail -- for crying out loud, even notepad.exe manages!

vi might be an editor of choice for quite some folks, but it's singularingly
inappropriate for a default only editor.

--
⢎⣉⠂⠠⠤⡀⣄⠤⡀⠠⡅⠀⠤⡧⠄⡄⠀⡄⠀⠀⠀⠠⡅⠀⡠⠤⠄⠀⠀⠀⢴⠍⠀⡠⠤⡀⣄⠤⡀⠀⠀⠀⠤⡧⠄⣇⠤⡀⡠⠤⡀⠀⠀⠀⡄⠀⡄⡠⠤⡀⠠⠤⡀⡇⡠⠄⠀⠀⠀
⠢⠤⠃⠪⠭⠇⠇⠀⠇⠀⠣⠀⠀⠣⠄⠨⠭⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠣⠀⠬⠭⠂⠀⠀⠀⠸⠀⠀⠣⠤⠃⠇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠣⠄⠇⠀⠇⠫⠭⠁⠀⠀⠀⠣⠣⠃⠫⠭⠁⠪⠭⠇⠏⠢⠄⠀⠄⠀
(https://github.com/kilobyte/braillefont for this hack)