Dear Linux distributions: if I want to use a freaky super-intelligent editor I am perfectly able to fire up emacs myself, or even type ' vim ' instead of ' vi ' (honest, the extra letter is not too much for me to type). I want vi . You know, the simple and predictable thing that system administrators like because it behaves.

As an aid to your planning, here is a minimum feature for any editor called vi :

When I paste things into an alleged vi in insert mode in a terminal window in X, you put them in exactly as they are . No more, no less.

If your 'vi' does anything else, you are not being helpful, you are causing me to violently throw your distribution at the wall because you have just screwed up what I was trying to do.

(I would prefer that you not mangle my typing either, but not mangling my copy and pastes in X is a minimum standard.)

(I do not mind whatever distributions choose to do with things called ' vim ' and the like. They can be as freaky super-intelligent as they want. My objections are strictly for what happens when I innocently type ' vi '.)