On 3/10/21, Andreas Kusalananda Kähäri <andreas.kahari@abc.se> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 09, 2021 at 06:51:56PM -0500, Steve Nickolas wrote:
>> On Wed, 10 Mar 2021, Rob Pike wrote:
>>
>> > I'm curious when people (other than me) erred and stopped saying that
>> > ed
>> > was the standard editor.
>> >
>> > -rob
>> >
>>
>> I actually use that expression in somewhat unorthodox ways. ;)
>>
>> Like "CDE is the standard desktop environment like ed is the standard
>> text
>> editor." (I still consider both to be true even though about no one uses
>> either anymore.)
>>
>> -uso.
>
> Hi, I'm "about no one".  I use ed(1) every once in a while, both the
> way it was supposed to be used, i.e. interactively, and occasionally
> scripted on smaller documents.
>
> I'm soon 50.  Having grown up with computers, and having spent most of
> my money as a student buying the next bigger and/or faster PC, I find
> that I nowadays enjoy smaller, slower systems and simpler editors more
> and more.  Getting distracted by syntax highligting, confused by too
> complicated configurations... There is a certain beauty in the editing
> language of ed(1).  It's minimalistic and restrictive, and therefore
> forces you to think, to remember, and to be creative.

This comment resonates with me so much.  I am enjoying these days
mostly retro systems too -- computers I grew up with.  There is a
certain beauty in the term "less is more".  And nothing is more
satisfying than sitting in front of a CRT terminal (either some real
terminal or PC) and working in a full screen text mode.  No GUIs, no
distractions -- just pure conversation with a machine using only text.
That's UNIX for me.

These days there have been a huge resurgence of various retro
communities around the world.  There are still tons of new programs
and games being published for 8-bit micro's or Amiga's.  Still it
appears the Unix community in general is not part of that movement.  I
think TUHS is an exception and a haven for people who just prefer the
old ways.  I find Unix these days too bloated and moved away from its
main core values: simplicity and minimalism.  The hardware was much
simpler too back in the days.

Long live the ed(1) and vi(1).

--Andy