Bug#633652: emacs on a text console - please help me overcome the shock

[Bill MacAllister <whm@stanford.edu>]

--On Tuesday, August 23, 2011 08:35:58 AM +0800 jidanni@jidanni.org wrote:

>>>>>> "r" == rdiezmail-emacs  <rdiezmail-emacs@yahoo.de> writes:
> r> The console mode has been a shock. There is no mouse at all. I cannot
> r> navigate the menus as usual, menu-bar-open is weird and unfriendly.
> r> But, worst of all, some key combinations do not work well.
> But that's the way it must be here on Debian, if you are root.
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=633652
> My question is how do all those high powered Debian Developers cope?
> Don't tell me they don't use emacs.
> Or not as root.
> Not even
> when
> administering their system?

If you are truly using the console then it is likely that some of the
issues have nothing to do with emacs and everything to do with the
console terminal emulation.  At a base level emacs is depending on
escape sequences to move the cursor around, but I expect it is doing
a lot fancier things that only a good terminal emulator will keep up
with.  And I would add that I don't really want anyone working on
improving console terminal emulation---there are too many other things
to do that need to be done and no one spends much time on the console
these days.

As a side note I really hate modal editors like vi and its decendents,
but I know enough of it to be able to work on consoles when emacs is
not installed yet or the terminal emulation is not up to it.  It is
just part of managing the system in my view.

Finally, when I am editing text I find that a mouse slows everything
down.  I do just fine with character cell xterms and no mouse.  I do
think it is worth getting color to work when possible.  The syntax
highlighting helps me spot stupid errors early.

Bill

-- 

Bill MacAllister
Infrastructure Delivery Group, Stanford University