Author: T.J. Duchene Date: To: dng Subject: Re: [DNG] Proposed defaults changes
On Fri, 17 Jul 2015 09:04:43 -0700
jce <jce@???> wrote:
>
> But as far as the vi vs. nano as *default* editor thing, I think nano
> would generate a lot less "how do I get out of this thing?" traffic
> for devuan support.
>
Gentlemen, please excuse me if this seems blunt - but - I think the odds
of anyone complaining about vi are realistically extremely low. While
I respect a healthy discussion, I'd just like to say I feel it is
entirely a moot point. Devuan is basically the same style and audience
as Debian, which means 90% of the people using it already know their
way about in UNIX. The probability is very low that a newcomer is
going to use Devuan at all.
Even if a newcomer does use Devian, their expectation is going to want
to be using a X11 text editor to edit config files - if necessary in
root mode. If we want to make things friendly, accommodating that desire
is probably the best option.
Aside from that, new and intermediate users are probably going to look
up instructions, and follow whatever they say; which we can't possibly
anticipate, unless someone intends to write a Devuan Manual. There is
no real consistency of instruction on the Web, and they are going to do
whatever the web says. By far, the widest instructed text tool is vi,
and it is the only one guaranteed to be on every POSIX.
Advanced users are going to use whatever they want.
As far as I know, Debian already installs nano by default, alongside
vi. I suggest that we just do the same and let the matter rest.