ne's manual
ne's manual
ne's user interface is essentially a compromise between the limits of
character driven terminals, and the power of GUIs. While I would
never deny that real editing is done without ever touching a
mouse, it is also true that it should be doable without ever touching a
manual. This two conflicting goals can be easily accomodated in a single
program if we can offer a series of interfaces which allow for a
differentiated usage.
In other words, it is unlikely that a ne wizard will ever have to
activate a menu, but in order to become an expert user you just have to use
the menus enough to learn by heart the most important keystrokes. A good
manual is always invaluable when one comes to configuration and esotheric
features, but not all users will ever need to change ne's menus or
key bindings.
Another important thing is that powerful features should always be accessible, at least in part, to every user. Putting a macro capability that depends on learning LITHP is undoubtly a strange design choice. The average user should be able to record his actions, replay them, and save them in a humanly readable format for further usage and editing.
In the following sections we will make a quick tour of ne's features.