Re: OT: Unicode and vi(m). Was Re: Great SWT Program

bbound@xxxxxxxxx <bbound@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This begs the obvious question: what is a "terminal emulator" for, if
not to provide an environment for genuinely archaic software to run?

There is one "retro"-aspect left even in modern computer systems, that
warrants the use of "retro"-software: it's the network.

Ok, many people already have their >10MB/s up- and downloads nowadays,
but often enough one is still faced with a slower link. Editing a file
across such a slower link with a graphical editor will take you really
looooooooonnnnnnnnnngggggggg time. Editing with a "retro" curses based
editor works like a charm, even over a slow link.

PS: I'm not("not", not "now") sitting in front of the machine I'm
posting this from. My newsreader, mailprogram, irc-client and
more apps are all "retro" curses-based apps, which I leave running
on some server within the (also curses-based terminal-multiplexer)
"screen", from which I detach at evening, and to which I re-attach
next morning, and have all my progs still running.

Also at work, I regularly have to connect to a host that is, well,
perhaps about 800km away, and the link there isn't exactly of LAN-
speed. No problem with the retro-apps we use there. Casually, we
also do need graphical apps there. We used rdesktop and vnc: both
boooring.

Of course, I'm also lazy, so if I already know how to use vim, why
should I use a different editor when working on local host?

.