-=> Quoting Maurice Kinal to Nancy Backus on 06 Nov 09  02:40:02 <=-

 MK> I started using vi when I was thrust into the Unix world.  Since then
 MK> it is what I am used to but it has gotten vastly overbloated since
 MK> then. I could say the same for Emacs which has gotten even more
 MK> overbloated but MicroEmacs seems like a good throwback to the good ol'
 MK> less bloated days. 

Especially mine, which is FROM the good ol' less bloated days..  

 > except WordStar on my sister's computer before we got ours set
 > up at home.

 MK> I managed to escape that.  However qedit on DOS was really nice.  It
 MK> was the only editor I cared for in DOS world.  HP tried porting it to
 MK> Unix world but I don't think it went anywhere and I haven't heard
 MK> anything about it since. 

Dunno about the unix world, but I know that I keep hearing about qedit
here in the Fido world.  :)  I never used it knowingly (never know just
what one is using when one is answering a message online on the bbs, of
course... ), but I know I've heard others talk about using it with
their setups, still.  :)

Wordstar served its purpose... I'd been typing up minutes, for a group I
was secretary for, on my old portable typewriter and getting frustrated
with the impossibility of getting a clean copy.  My sister, who already
had a computer set up at home, suggested I come over and do them on the
computer... and I was introduced to the joys of a text editor/ word
processor.  I decided that indeed that was less hair-pulling after all. 
And I relaxed my opposition to having a computer set up here at home. 
Of course, Richard set up a different combination of things here, so I
was taught DOS and MicroEMACS and some related stuff... all of which, to
some extent or other, I guess I'm still using, along with things like my
genealogy programs, and bbs'ing and BlueWave, and a music writing
program, etc, which came along as we went.  Dunno what I'd do without
the magic box, now...  

 > a real offline reader/door combination makes it easy

 MK> Not in linux.  No viable way of uploading/downloading to a DOS based
 MK> BBS without hacking a suitable zmodem emulator.  There used to be one
 MK> but it was really flakey and I doubt the source will work anymore,
 MK> especially on a 64 bit system but even 32 bit is debatable these days. 

Can't you use DOSbox?  I hear people discussing using that, that are
using linux systems, as well as the ones with the more modern Windows
bloatware...

 > QWK door...

 MK> Won't work anymore.  Dialup has been dead here for over a decade now
 MK> and I seriously doubt it'll make a resurgance anytime in the
 MK> forseeable future. Heck even dialup using handhelds are using tcpip as
 MK> opposed to the more traditional serial connections of DOS based
 MK> BBSing. 

How so?  I'm using QWK doors on all the Wildcat boards I call, as well
as the Synchronet ones... anything that doesn't have a BW-compatible or
true BW door, actually.... and they are all telnet, not dialup... I know
people that are using them from the web side of things, too.   Some of
those bbses have a dialup option, but as they are all long-distance, I
only use telnet.

ttyl     neb

... Just because it doesn't do what you planned doesn't mean it's useless.
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.20