Xref: utzoo comp.editors:249 comp.emacs:3850 comp.mail.misc:1109
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!fed!m1rcd00
From: m1rcd00@fed.FRB.GOV (Bob Drzyzgula)
Newsgroups: comp.editors,comp.emacs,comp.mail.misc
Subject: Editor for mail
Keywords: mail editors emacs mh elm
Message-ID: <215@fed.FRB.GOV>
Date: 15 Jul 88 13:35:46 GMT
Organization: Federal Reserve Board, Washington, DC
Lines: 34


	Here at the Federal Reserve Board, we have a number of senior and
not so senior management type users that feel that having to learn
a "complicated" syntax for an editor just to send and receive mail
is an undue burden. The ideal situation would be if they could use
our word processor as the editor, but that would be WordMarc, and
WordMarc is just too weird about file names and temporary files and
command syntax and other stuff to be either very functional or very
user-proof in this application.  We have been using MH as our primary
user-mail interface, and they don't like that either -- no pretty
blue windows with cute menus popping up (these people see all that
glitzy stuff that IBM PCs do and get all jealous) :-).

	I can deal with the menu problem with a front end on MH, or by
maybe using elm once that stabilizes. But the editor problem is
harder. The last thing I need is a project to write a new editor.
I keep thinking that the Rand editor e would be the answer,
but then I worry about the user that all of a sudden wants to send
something with tabs in it (I don't know, a Makefile or something).

	Emacs (in it's native state) and vi are considered "too complex"
by these users, and ex and ed are of course out of the question.
One thing I thought of was to come up with a limited set of key
bindings for emacs based on what the function keys generate on our
vt220 clones. Of course this would mean that I would finally be
forced to learn emacs, but life is sometimes hard :-)

	So I invite discussion on this. Does anyone know of a deathly
simple, entirely intuitive, full screen editor that will work on
vt220 terminals, and maybe do function keys and stuff, that might
satisfy these users? Has anyone done what I described with emacs?
-- 
Bob Drzyzgula
Federal Reserve Board, Washington, DC, 20551; uunet!fed!rcd