Baslinux mailing list

[Day Brown <daybrown AT hypertech.net>]

Sindi Keesan wrote:
> 
> > Day Brown wrote:
> >>
> >> First off, most of us compose text for this screen,
> >> not to be printed on paper.
> >
> > When I compose for the screen (eg. email), I use a text
> > editor.  When I compose for paper, I use a word processor.
> 
> I use a text editor for most things, including ones I print.
> >> Second, if you have gone to the bother to actually learn
> >> how to type, the gui mouse system sux.
> >
> > Why is that?  I know how to type and I see no difference
> > between the two.  Once you are on the line typing, it's
> > exactly the same.  The only difference is in one case (GUI)
> > you use the mouse to select options, and in the other (wp51)
> > you use drop-down menus or function keys to select options.
> > Perhaps some people have learned to touch-type the wp51
> > function keys (all 40 of them), but not me.
> There are those of us who have memorized the relevant F keys, which is why
> I also use the old XT keyboard since you can reach those keys more easily.
I went out of my way to get a genuine IBM KYBD. feels like the old
Selectric, and it'll prolly last longer than I will. I loved the XT too,
and I'd still be using it, but lost it in a housefire. Been at this AT
101 since 97.

>  It is a real nuisance to me if I need to remove my hands from the letter
> keys to find the top-line F keys or the mouse.  I often replace my hands
> onto the wrong keys. Therefore I am looking hard for a linux wordprocessor
> that needs no mouse input and the gui ones don't seem designed that way.
> The author of flwriter is unusually responsive to feature suggestions.
I have similar; I learned to type in high school on a Remington.
I hate having to take my hands off the home keys to move a mouse cursor.
The Linux text mode text editors that I have seen were all mono; like
nobody's done anything with the color pulldown ansi scrollbar system
I've found so useful in dos.

> We are all different. I find colors really confusing and can not remember
> what they mean.  Red underlines drive me crazy.  Give me a TTL monitor any
> day.
Its a chronic problem in open source, which has no grand pope like Gates
to lay down the law for a consistent system. But like language and
jargon, it eventually works out.
 
> > Why do you say that?  If you write your novel in chapters
> > and save each chapter as a separate file, it works pretty
> > well.
Because, when I want to look thru all of the dialogue of a given
character, to see if it is consistent, the search thru a single long
document is gonzo easier. And sometimes, I remember something I want to
insert, but can only remember a relevant phrase to search for. Again,
opening up all those chapters would be a bitch. I've used DEXTER.EXE w/
DR-DOS or FREEDOS, and seen it search thru almost a meg of ascii in an
eyeblink. The Linux editors which I have seen, aint nearly that fast.
For most people, no problem, they dont work with long texts. I also have
copies of Edw. Gibbon, THE DECLINE & FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE,
1.6meg/volume, and again the DEXTER searches are reasonably fast.

> >> I have seen dos text mode tools that use color in a
> >> systematic way.
> >
> > Linux, too, has text editors that use colors in a systemic
> > way.  I use NEdit (on BL2) for most things (except email)
> > and it shows control codes and tags in various colors
> > (user definable).
That's really kewl. One of the things I liked about DEXTER was that I
could set the colors and the hotkeys to whatever I was familiar with.

> >> This *lack of functionality* is most obvious to those of us
> >> who remember the BBS qwkmail newsgroups, in which, on my screen,
> >> I set my words yellow, yours are green, if you quote a third
> >> person, then his are blue, and so on.
> >
> > I've got that right now (in Sylpheed).  My words are black,
> > your words are dark green, and if you quote anybody else they
> > are light green.  I could have chosen blue/green/yellow, but
> > I like the shades of green.
Sylpheed? sounds nice. part of some browser? Considering all the times
we've seen people confused about who said what, I wonder why it aint
popular.