Re: [Nano-devel] [nano] improving accessibility

[Benno Schulenberg]

On Fri, Sep 9, 2016, at 11:32, Enrico Mioso wrote:
> i started using nano some versions ago, something like 1.x.x if I am not 
> wrong,

Which version are you using now?  And are you able to
build from source?

> My nano configuration is as follows:
> 
> unset backup
> unset backwards
> unset boldtext

Normally it is not necessary to unset any options -- they
are unset by default.  But maybe the /etc/nanorc file at
the university sets some things that you want to unset?

> set const

If you are on a modern nano (2.5.0 or higher), you may want
to update this to 'set constantshow'.

> # at the moment, to have all the ext visible without going around and moving 
> # the cursor, since I am in VGA mode, 50 rows, 80 cols.

Does your computer still boot into a graphical mode?  Or does
it just spawn a bunch of consoles and never bothers to start X?

> # Don't want the history
> unset historylog

Really?  Is it easier to retype a search string than to type
<Up> a few times until you find a previous search string again?

> # don't know why I did set this
> set noconvert

Maybe because you never look at the statusbar when a file is
loaded, so you would miss the message that a file is converted
from DOS or Mac format?  By not converting you will notice all
the ^Ms at the ends of lines, so you know it's a DOS file.

> # don't like automatic newlines
> set nonewlines

No one does.  :)

> # Preserve the XON and XOFF keys (^Q and ^S): don't know if I set that or I 
> # found it on the sample file? 
> set preserve

Do you ever use ^S to halt output?  If so, when?  If not,
wouldn't it be nicer to do "bind ^S savefile main"?

> set tabsize 2

Ah.  That makes sense.  When your display is so small,
you don't want to waste an abundant eight spaces to a tab.

But... this means that the nano code must be frustrating
for you: one indent is four spaces, two indents is one tab,
which for you is two spaces -- things appear to be indented
the wrong way around.  :|  High time that we normalize
the indenting of nano to all tabs.

> a last note: i would ignore colour setup in nano, not colours in general :)

Ehm...  You mean you don't want to color nano itself, but you
do use syntax coloring?  Or don't you use syntax coloring either?

And one more question: do you use nano to compose your mails?
(Because in the headers I see you use Alpine as your mailer.)

Benno

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