Re: GNU ex (an enhanced version of GNU ed)

[John Cowan]

Bob Proulx scripsit:

> Not to detract from your quest to further progress on 'ex', an
> admirable cause btw, but could you expand on the difficulties you
> encountered with nvi and db?  I thought that worked.
> 
> In order to verify for me that nvi could build from source I just now
> recompiled both db-1.85 and nvi-1.79 from source on my amd64 machine
> in 64-bit mode.  Everything went fine.  I used the Debian sources.

I attempted to build both under my environment, which is Cygwin.  1.79
doesn't even recognize Cygwin; when I upgraded its copy of configure,
I got hung up in some kind of loop (I forget the details).  1.85-05
configured okay, but then I had to install several hacks (configure
thinks Cygwin has Sys V IPC, but it doesn't) and make common/db.h point
to DB version 3 explicitly, but even then it wouldn't link.  So I gave up.

> I used 'qed' extensively in the old days.  I still consider myself
> 'ed' fluent.  I prefer 'nvi' over other clones because nvi is truly
> more classic vi compatible and the 'vim' differences chafe on me.

Me too, especially the fact than when you are in 'ex' mode and you give a
'u' command, *all* changes since you entered 'ex' mode are undone.
If you are using 'vim' as 'ex', that means since the beginning of the
edit session!  That's utterly intolerable.

> Although normally I compose in emacs as my preferred editor.  

I hate double-bucky-cokebottle editors.  :-)

-- 
John Cowan <address@hidden> www.ccil.org/~cowan  www.reutershealth.com
Micropayment advocates mistakenly believe that efficient allocation of
resources is the purpose of markets.  Efficiency is a byproduct of market
systems, not their goal.  The reasons markets work are not because users
have embraced efficiency but because markets are the best place to allow
users to maximize their preferences, and very often their preferences are
not for conservation of cheap resources.  --Clay Shirkey