On Sunday 25 March 2001 23:36, you wrote:
> 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?"
Umm, probably someone likes Pico and doesn't want the restrictive license.
> 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 remember one last year which was a binary of tiny proportions--perhaps 40K
and very functional. I have it in an emvbedded system, right in the
non-volatile memory where I can edit configuration files. Much better than
the supplied utilities for the same purpose.
>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.
I program in Python for large projects. The enforced clean code is very
important to me. I cannot immediately recognize what I did when looking at
six-month old perl code.
Anyway, what you are saying is that you have different itches than the
developers around the world that are scratching theirs? Consider the
question, "How do you herd cats?"
> 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.
If you want to help out and you are not a programmer, but can do web sites,
then organize a project to scratch your favorite itch. Put it on sourceforge
and ask for help--find developers who want to do what you want to do then
enable them with support, organization, fund-raising, recruiting, publicity,
whatever you can do.
What you are wanting is probably waiting for you to help make it happen.
Civileme
