[SunRescue] Pico Forever!!! Nah.. ed ed ed!

[BSD Bob the old greybeard BSD freak]

> #!/bin/satire

#!/bin/great-and-ancient-satire

> Pico Forever Brothers... join with me in the clan of Pico, we shall wage
> a pico jihad against the infidels of the great satan emacs, and the lesser
> satan vi. 

Nay, forsooth and forswear, and forthewith, it be ed...ed...ed... forever!
Thinke ye ed, for all ye UNIXe purposes and needes, henceforthe.

Actually, the righte vi is goodly fair, too, but be not for the faint
of heart.  Yon behemoth, emacs, doth beget curses and fits and starts
that unduley overwhelmeth ye 2mb ram PDP and such machines of the
lesser classes.

A goodly and simple vi doth fitteth within the confines of even
the leaste Dossish boot floppeye, with the full nroffe in likewise
form.  Together, with ethereal drivers and effteepee, they maketh 
emergenceye recoverie possible, even from yon PeeCee.

> I disdain such baroqe  operating system replacements as emacs (no joke,
> RMS thinks that emacs could easily be turned into a complete OS, and in
> fact attempted to do so, mostly unsucsessfully for 15 years), and vi isnt
> an editor, it's a medieval torture device ported to UNIX. 

Vi be not of tortuous deeds, but only of some fair scholarly learning,
to be of general use.  If, upon teste of touchtypistry, it be noted,
with some fair scrutiny, and care, one may findeth, thusly, that it
be known that fair vi be only of one-fisted qualitie.  That harsh and
great behemoth, emacs, tendeth to the heathenous practice of twofistery
upon the keyboarde.  Such practice be of greate scorn and distaste, to
be remindeth of days of yore, whence wordstarishness practices were,
at those tymes, in vogue.  Such twofistery in control of this, and
control of that, be utter impractical, and weareth greatly upon the
fingeres of a touchtypist at speed.  It only truely befitteth the
needs of a fingerepokering wildeman upon the keyboarde.

> Actually that's not fair, if you are a coding then vi and emacs are both
> great tools. The ability to properly view literals of special characters,
> and the very powerful text and file handling tools built in to vi are great,
> and emacs modes can do almost anything you can think of. 
> 
> But for simple text editing like email or readme files, there is no need
> to load up something the size of emacs, and vi is unnecisarily complicated
> for beginners to use.

Nay, nay,.... vi be of simple and goodly virtue, whence comparethed withe
that behemoth, emacs.  Yet, in simplest of virtue, ed be of purest and
of greate utilitarian sorte.  Considereth, bye example, forthewithe,
in particular case, the occurance of a boote of ye UNIXe, sans all
but roote.  Where findest ye emacs, thence?  It be gone, like the
waters of tyme.  Fair vi be some problematik, if she be of usr mount,
but be still goodly if mounted in roote, in suitable statick bin.
Pico be usable in said roote environ, if likewise, statick of form
in bin.  Yet, fewe machines be made what haveth pico or vi in roote.
In such lattere case, ed, be of fittest virture.
> 
> I have to think that more people have been scared away from unix by vi than
> by any other aspect of UNIX operation. How many of us managed to succesfully
> edit a file, save, and exit vi on the first try without resorting to
> suspending or killing it?

Yea, vi be of scholarly teste, and requireth some skills of mastery.
Yet, she be virtuous in that she be, of all screenly editores, available
upon moste UNIXe machines.  Pico, of such merit as it may be, be foundeth
scarcely in said machines, and cannote be dependeth upone in greate neede.

> How many of us have accidentally entered a large number before a particularly
> nasty command because we forgot what mode we were in, and accidentally munged
> a document (yes I know there's an undo, but the first time I did it, I didn't)

The security of minde, in case of doubte be a single touche upon the ESC keye.
That cleareth your minde, and insureth vi be in requisite non-inclusive mode.

> Pico is relativley small, simple, and users can generally figure it out
> without extensive tech support. I deal with a lot of UNIX beginners when
> I teach security classes, and years of experience have taught me that
> subjecting these folks to vi or emacs is just not worth the headache for
> either of us.

Some probleme, be, in the nature of the GUI beaste, furthered upon the
worlde, of late.  It causeth some heathenous degredation of the proper
mindeset of those novices aspiring to greater UNIXe wisdome.

One findeth, with tyme, that vi be comfy like the peasant's olde shoe,
and serveth one's needes well.

One may neede maketh aspiring novices think like a vi user rather than
a GUI user, and that helpeth immensely.  It be, of the same sorte of
mindeset, as the need to think like a troffer whence ye maketh novices
learne of the power of troff at making small such typesetting as may
be needed, in UNIXe.  

The axiom of olde tymes, readeth, ``Firste learneth ye ed, second
learneth ye vi, then lastly learneth ye such editores as may suit
other needes upon your UNIXe machine.''  Failure to so doeth, may
leadeth one down the paths of unrecoverable machines, and great
frustrations upon the minde.

IF ye be of only minor user inclination, perhaps pico may be of
some merit.  But, if ye be a serious UNIXe user, the olde axiom,
still holdthe true.

It still be virtuous, even todaye.

/*EOF
/*EOF

Whew,... time for some coffee......(:+}}..., inet flak jacket, etc.....

Bob