What is the easiest and most accessible editor?

[Linux for blind general discussion]

ex and that's available whereever vimm is installed and if you know how to
use ed, ex works very much like it.


On Mon, 29 Nov 2021, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:

> Tim here.  It really depends on what environment you're in, how much
> power you need, how customizable you need it to be, and how you
> think/operate/use-a-screen-reader.
>
> - vi/vim: very powerful, should be available out of the box on most
>   installs, but a bit opaque.  This is my daily driver for
>   text-editing.
>
> - emacs: also very powerful, the scripting language is LISP and very
>   customizable; doesn't come out-of-the-box on most installs, but can
>   be easily added
>
> - nano: a much lower learning curve, but also a much lower ceiling.
>   There are things that I do regularly with vi/vim that would be
>   impossible with nano
>
> - ed: the classic line-based editor.  It *should* be available
>   out-of-the-box on every system since it's part of the POSIX
>   specification, but a lot of distros have relegated it to a package
>   you have to install after the fact.  It's line-based, so it has a
>   much more input/output based feel to it which can work more
>   comfortably with a screen-reader, without the need to review the
>   screen (like the other editors here which have TUIs and take over
>   the whole display).  When I'm using text-to-speech, I actually
>   prefer ed.  It's kinda opaque, but learning the basics doesn't take
>   long, and it's really light-weight yet powerful.  Though I'm biased
>   since I'm the goofball behind the "ed(1) conference" account on
>   Twitter (@ed1conf).  There's also "edbrowse" (I believe it was
>   created by a blind developer) which takes some of the
>   ideas/interface of "ed" and adds a lot of additional features to it.
>
> - joe, jove, and a host of other smaller console text editors.  I
>   haven't messed around with them as much since I'm content with
>   what's available out of the box with vi, vim, or ed.
>
> Outside a terminal, there are a number of GUI text-editors and IDEs
> that folks like, but I'm not as well-versed with them since I'm an old
> terminal dork. (grins)  The accessibility of any of those will
> definitely vary so you'd have to try each out for yourself.  The nice
> thing about the terminal is that you can easily review every element
> on the screen because it's just a grid of characters. GUIs have to
> expose such information intentionally, at the beneficence of the
> developer.
>
> The learning-curves for vi/vim, ed, and emacs can be a little
> steeper, but vim comes with a "vimtutor" program that helps walk you
> through using it.  And to some folks, the modal nature of vi/vim/ed
> takes a while to get used to.  But anybody who has used a
> screen-reader likely understands the idea of a "review mode" which is
> also a modal interface.
>
> I've used vi/vim for 20+ years and am glad to help where I can.  You
> can also find me on the Vim mailing list, on Reddit's /r/vim and as
> @gumnos on Twitter, and as mentioned, I run the @ed1conf account on
> Twitter & Mastodon, so I can help there, too.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> -tim
>
> On November 29, 2021, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
> > Hi Friends,
> >
> > Since you have been lately discussing configurations and editing
> > them, changing them, or adding scripts, What is the most accessible
> > and easiest editor to use in Slint for editing configurations? My
> > understanding is that Vi, Nano, and Pico all come preinstalled. Are
> > there other text editors preinstalled? or, Do you recommend one
> > that I can install if the abovementioned ones are not recommended?
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Ibrahim
> >
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> >
>
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