From: wpp@marie.physik.tu-berlin.de (Kai Petzke) Subject: Linux, Editors and Word Processor (my $.02) Date: 22 May 1993 11:54:49 GMT
Hello Linuxers,
I could work on a WYSIWYG Word Processor project, say, one day a week.
I don't want to, though, mostly, because I will never use it. This is
not really the term. But I would have to extensively use it for testing.
If you go into the depths (Macro processing, complicated formatting,
and, and, and) most WYSIWYG's get rather complicated in my opinion.
However, when I introduced Linux to computer newbies, I felt that there
is not only need for a plug-and-play word processor, there is also need
for a plug-and-play editor. Of course, elvis (vi) is great, and emacs is
the very best, but lots of people need to much time to get used to them.
What I wanted to write, is a DOS EDIT like editor, with mouse support and
pull-down menus, on plain ascii console, or in a xterm. The first step
will be just an editor, only one open file, and some primitiv functions
(search forward/backward, copy/paste), and mouse. I expect, that Zeyd's
ncurses is a good basis for writing this. The mouse driver is available
with the selection package (which does cut and paste between VC's).
Next step might be extended action: settings like autoindent, regular
expressions, meta key bindings, multiple files. There will be two names
for the same, one for a small version with a clear desktop, one for the
full game. Finally, the editor might be turned into a front end for GNU CC
like the well-known ones for Turbo Pascal and Borland C.
Comments are welcome. Does something like this exist already? Do you think,
people (you!) would need it - not use it at all? Shall this editor be able
to edit the Word Processor files (with much less functionality, however)?
Please reply, by E-Mail or Post.