I just finished reading an article about the 1.0 release of nano, ANOTHER
text editor for Unix/Linux. My question is: "Does the Unix/Linux world
really need more text editors?" One thing I really love about Linux is the
fact that I have so many choices for tasks such as text editting, e-mail,
image viewing or playing audio. What I hate is that it takes me an extra
half hour to install a distribution because I have to remove all of the
extraneous software that I have no use for. I understand that each one of us
has our preferences as I've seen posts here in the past regarding the jed and
joe editors. Why create ANOTHER text editor that looks like pico with some
added features? I'm sure we've all heard the phrase "Why re-invent the
wheel?" Why is it that it seems the Unix/Linux world spends so much time
doing that? True, part of it is the overall "openness" of GNU and open
source software, which I think is great. But why so much fanfare over
another text editor. I'm no developer by any means granted I wish I had
better programming skills so I could actively contribute more but I can't
help but laugh when I read about another text editor. I still use Windows
quite a bit for various tasks. I love Macromedia's Dreamweaver, Flash and
Fireworks software but only the Gimp comes somewhat close in functionality
and ease of use to Fireworks and there aren't any WYSIWYG HTML editors worth
mentioning for Linux. Flash is limited to a plugin which works very well but
I'd love to be able to work from one box instead of having to move to my
windows system to work rather than play. Sure I could use my favorite text
editor to design web sites and with a little more patience I could create
some very nice graphics for them with the Gimp. I'd much rather open a
program like Dreamweaver so I can create things visually and then tweak the
code later. It seems that at times there is lack of innovation. My next
bitch is along similar lines. How many scripting languages do we really
need? Off the top of my head I can name bash, perl, python, tcl, and expect.
I can see a use for bash and perl and maybe even tcl but I don't understand
the point of python. Expect is very much designed for a certain niche but
python just seems to be perl rehashed with a different name. I've also
tinkered a bit with lisp and have removed many others. Perhaps because I
haven't had a USE for these languages is why I feel there isn't a need for
them but I can't help but think there are too many languages that do the same
things. After glancing at the packages I chose NOT to install I notice there
are eiffel, ruby, prolog, and haskell languages. I'm sure they all have
their niche but what about niches other than programming? Maybe I'm out in
left field but right now I just feel there is little focus when it comes to
making Linux useful to more people. Again, as I said before I'm no developer
and I truly wish I could help out more. I am by no means disappointed with
what Linux has to offer. I am however disappointed in the lack of desktop
software. Perhaps I'm just being impatient. Maybe what I'm wanting is a
year or so down the road, who knows? Just my two cents.
--
Greg A. Bur
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.rivertown-computers.com
All flames may be directed to /dev/null
