Re: [Nano-devel] RFC: the content and aspect of the help lines

[Benno Schulenberg]

On Mon, Mar 17, 2014, at 16:12, Chris Allegretta wrote:
> One thing I think we need to do /by default/ is look a lot like Pico's
> default presentation.  If we start straying too [far] from it we risk not
> being considered a drop in replacement for Pico [...]

Ah, okay.  Didn't know, until today, that pico was a valid command
on my system.  But... it still presents itself as nano, so in my opinion
it's okay to look a little different (better) in other aspects too.

But Eitan's idea seems good, to let the looks depend on the
invocation name.  Would that be an acceptable option?

> I think there is a good argument to be made for e.g. why we don't
> start using -O by default.

Oof!  I'm glad you're not proposing that in earnest.  :)  I like the
symmetry of an edit window bordered by a blank line at the top
and a blank line at the bottom (the statusbar is blank most of the
time when using quickblank).


> On that topic: nano's default usage was as an email editor.  Having a
> spell checker as a default menu option does make sense in that regard.
>  Since spelling is only useful in that case though, I think it makes
> sense to re-purpose that ability based on context.

Agreed, on both points.

> I think even despite our best efforts to communicate them, people can
> react negatively to what seem like minor changes.

I know from my own experience.  I'll try to reign in my rearrangement
tendencies.

However, this was interesting to see:
    http://linuxgazette.net/issue50/guckes.html

The second screenshot shows nano with a somewhat different
arrangement of help items, and with "Write Out" as two words
and "Uncut" with a lowercase c.  :)  Apparently you have pushed
the looks of nano more towards pico over time.


By the way, when staying close to pico is a goal, shouldn't D and M and R
in the file browser say something like "[ Ignored ]" in the statusbar?
    http://info.eps.surrey.ac.uk/FAQ/pico.html

Regards,

Benno

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