Re: A new editor

[Charlotte Koch <charlotte%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

On Fri, 16 Oct 2026, nia wrote:

> NetBSD is having an influx of new users. Some have mentioned having no
> alternative screen editor to vi(1) in base is an obstacle to getting
> their system configured. I've been trying to point new users to
> xedit(1), but this doesn't help if they're in single-user mode or
> can't get X running, or are limited to /rescue.

I'm 110% behind this initiative!

Personally, I've always thought that 'ee' would fit well for this task.
Are you familiar with it?

It's already in pkgsrc (editors/ee), so it's easy to give it a spin.
It's small, BSD-licensed, and conveniently shows the available commands
right on the screen (like nano).

I haven't verified whether it's buildable with NetBSD curses out of the
box, though.

Charlotte