editor that understands CTRL/B, CTRL/I, CTRL/U

Anton Shterenlikht mexas at bristol.ac.uk
Wed Apr 25 06:45:10 UTC 2012


On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 05:31:33AM +0200, Polytropon wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:02:27 +0100, Anton Shterenlikht wrote:
> > On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 01:33:58PM -0500, Robert Bonomi wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:50:26 +0100
> > > > From: Anton Shterenlikht <mexas at bristol.ac.uk>
> > > > To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> > > > Subject: editor that understands CTRL/B, CTRL/I, CTRL/U
> > > >
> > > > My daughter is doing a touch typing course
> > > > that presumes MS Word. So far she was fine
> > > > with pico, but now they want the kids to
> > > > practice CTRL/B (bold), CTRL/I (italic),
> > > > CTRL/U (underline). She really needs to use
> > > > these particular combinations because that
> > > > is how the on-line assessment tool is set out.
> > > >
> > > > I use nothing but vi, so have no clue which,
> > > > if any, editor from ports/editors will have
> > > > these particular combinations implemented.
> > > >
> > > > Please recommend one, preferably as simple
> > > > and as small as possible.
> > > 
> > > Sorry *NO* 'text editor' has those capabilities, let alone has 
> > > them on those key sequences.
> > > 
> > > Those are 'word processor' functions.  word processor' software
> > > is required.
> > 
> > I know, I know..
> 
> Seems that your "better paid friends" at the board of
> education do _not_ know. :-)
> 
> 
> 
> > I don't know why in a touchtyping course
> > you need to teach kids this, but..
> 
> WHAT? Let me get some food, I need to barf. What does this
> have to do with touchtyping? What an educational ballast
> are they teaching?
> 
> 
> 
> > Anyway, abiword seems to do what I need.
> > 
> > Let me know if there's anything lighter.
> 
> I'm not aware of anything lighter in the realm of word
> processors. All "alternatives" are full office suites,
> so the "single purpose" AbiWord (with less dependencies)
> should be the closest match and the most efficient one.
> 
> It is even "file-compatible" with proprietary MICROS~1
> products and offers a lot of the look & feel (which
> contradicts "blind" touchtyping) of "Word", at least
> some _older_ versions of it.
> 
> Teaching children an outdated version of some program
> (which it _will_ be when they leave school) is not a good
> idea. It creates confision and inefficient handling of
> the wrong tools to do a job.
> 
> "I want this to be a heading, I'm at... chapter 3.5 now,
> okay... this is 3.6 then. Then I select the text with the
> mouse... wait... okay, now [B] as I need a fat typeface,
> and maybe... make the text bigger... 15pt should be fine,
> no, 17 pt is better. Some spaces here... space space space
> space space, now it is centered. Good. Return Return Return,
> and now I can start with the text."
> 
> Compare that _typical_ approach to simply applying the style
> "Heading 2". And imagine the fun of changing font face, font
> size or enumeration. :-)

calm down man..

It's not too bad.

On the positive side, she only needed this 2/3 into
the course, when she can touch type already. Other
extra things they teach kids in the course are how
to write an informal letter or a job application - skills
that most UK school leavers haven't got.

sure, if I were designing the touch typing course,
it would be different - I taught myself with
games/gtypist, but..

On the other side, I have to admit, that overall
things with computer education in the UK are bad.
A report published by the Royal Society (UK
equivalent of an Academy of Sciences in other
countries) in January 2012 is tellingly entitled:

	Computing in Schools: Shut down or restart?

and starts with:

	The current delivery of Computing education
	in many UK schools is highly unsatisfactory. 

and then goes:

	many pupils are not inspired by what they
	are taught and gain nothing beyond basic
	digital literacy skills such as how to use
	a word-processor or a database.

It's a pretty depressing read:

http://royalsociety.org/education/policy/computing-in-schools/report/

Anyway, those of us in a position to affect
kids computer education, should do it, but
it's an uphill battle.

-- 
Anton Shterenlikht
Room 2.6, Queen's Building
Mech Eng Dept
Bristol University
University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK
Tel: +44 (0)117 331 5944
Fax: +44 (0)117 929 4423


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