Re: SEUL: Text editors.

[Kevin Forge <forgeltd@pop.netaddress.usa.net>]

This is a true story that illustrates why an edit.com clone needs to
be written for SEUL ( never mind what else is included ... Linux
wouldn't be Unix without VI ).
A Windows user ( lets call him SEUser ) who NEVER goes to the command 
line and has never sean edit.com installs Macafee antivirus 95.
It then prompts him to reboot and his computer is stuck at the 
"Starting Windows 95 cloud screen".  He then calls me in desperation
trying to get his PC working.  My instructions are as follows.
1 : Reboot the PC and press F8 repeatedly as soon as you see the grid 
in the top half of your screen with all the numbers and words.
2 : select "safe mode command line only" from the menu.
3 : type "edit autoexec.bat"
4 : Look for the line that mentions Macafee ( it should be the first
  line )
5 : go to the beginning of that line and type 'rem ' ( R-E-M ... I 
have to spell it out )
6 : Save an exit.
7 : Reboot the Computer again and let it start normally <long pause
   while machine boots> I'll come by later to "finish it up and
   drop off my bill".
This has happened on 3 Occasions according to my invoices ( but I
remember 5 ).
Pleas note that at no time do I explain to the user how edit.com
works.  I never tell him how to use the menu or how to save a file
or even how to exit the program.  Why ?  Because if you have used
any Word Processor or text editor for Windows 3.11, Windows 95 
Windows NT, or OS/2 then EDIT's interface will seam very familiar.
There are people writing text editors for Linux all the time, most
of them introduce an entirely new interface shared by noting else.
For once it would be nice to do an editor that was decidedly NOT 
original.
PS : There are other such incidents involving device drivers,
   win.ini, system.ini moved files and even deleted config.sys.
-- 
: "Through the firewall, out the router, down the T1, across the
: backbone, bounced from satellite, Nothing but net."