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9<h1>
10<font color="#CC0000">The nano FAQ</font></h1>
11<h2>
12<font color="#330000">Table of Contents</font></h2>
13
14<h2>
15<font color="#330000"><a href="#1">1.&nbsp; General</a></font></h2>
16
17<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.1">1.1 About this FAQ.</a></font>
18<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.2">1.2. How do I contribute to it?</a></font>
19<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.3">1.3. What is nano?</a></font>
20<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.4">1.4. What is the history behind
21nano?</a></font>
22<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.5">1.5. Why the name change from
23TIP?</a></font>
24<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.6">1.6 What is the current version
25of nano?</a></font>
26<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.7">1.7. I want to read the man page
27without having to download the program!</a></font></blockquote>
28
29<h2>
30<font color="#330000"><a href="#2">2. Where to get nano</a></font></h2>
31
32<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.1">2.1. FTP and WWW sites
33that carry nano.</a></font>
34<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.2">2.2. Redhat and derivatives (.rpm)
35packages.</a></font>
36<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.3">2.3. Debian (.deb) packages.</a></font>
37<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.4">2.4. By CVS (for the brave).</a></font></blockquote>
38
39<h2>
40<font color="#330000"><a href="#3">3. Installation and Configuration</a></font></h2>
41
42<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.1">3.1. How do install the
43RPM or DEB package?</a></font>
44<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.2">3.2. Compiling from source: WHAT
45THE HECK DO I DO NOW?</a></font>
46<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.2">3.3. Why does everything go into
47/usr/local?</a></font>
48<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.4">3.4. I get errors about 'bindtextdomain',
49'gettext' and/or 'gettextdomain'.&nbsp; What can I do about it?</a></font></blockquote>
50
51<h2>
52<font color="#330000"><a href="#4">4. Running</a></font></h2>
53
54<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.1">4.1. Ack!&nbsp; My backspace/delete/enter/double
55bucky/meta key doesn't seem to work!&nbsp; What can I do?</a></font>
56<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.2">4.2. Nano crashes when I type
57&lt;insert keystroke here>!</a></font>
58<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.3">4.3. Nano crashes when I resize
59my window.&nbsp;&nbsp; How can I fix that?</a></font>
60<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.4">4.4. Why does nano show ^\ and
61^_ in the shortcut list instead of ^G and ^J?</a></font>
62<br><a href="#4.5">4.5 How do I make nano my default editor (in Pine, mutt,
63etc.)?</a></blockquote>
64
65<h2>
66<font color="#330000"><a href="#5">5. Internationalization</a></font></h2>
67
68<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#5.1">5.1. There's no translation
69for my language!</a></font>
70<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#5.2">5.2. I don't like the translation
71for &lt;x> in my language.&nbsp;&nbsp; How can I fix it?</a></font></blockquote>
72
73<h2>
Chris Allegretta90d68952000-07-24 02:55:49 +0000[diff] [blame]74<font color="#330000"><a href="#6">6. Advocacy and Licensing</a></font></h2>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]75
76<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.1">6.1. Why should I use
77nano instead of Pico?</a></font>
78<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.2">6.2. Why should I use Pico instead
79of nano?</a></font>
80<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.3">6.3. What is so bad about the
81PINE license?</a></font>
82<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.4">6.4. Okay, well what mail program
83should I use then?</a></font>
84<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.5">6.5. Why doesn't UW simply change
85their license?</a></font>
86<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.6">6.6. What if tomorrow UW changes
87the license to be truly Free Software?</a></font></blockquote>
88
89<h2>
90<font color="#330000"><a href="#7">7. Miscellaneous</a></font></h2>
91
92<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.1">7.1. Nano related mailing
93lists.</a></font>
94<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.2">7.2. I want to send the development
95team a big load of cash (or just a thank you).</a></font>
96<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.3">7.3. How do I submit a patch?</a></font>
97<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.4">7.4. How do I join the development
98team?</a></font>
99<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.5">7.5. Can I have CVS write access?</a></font></blockquote>
100
101<h2>
102<a href="#8">8. ChangeLog</a></h2>
103
104<hr WIDTH="100%">
105<br>&nbsp;
106<h1>
107<a NAME="1"></a><font color="#330000">1.&nbsp; General</font></h1>
108
109<h2>
110<a NAME="1.1"></a><font color="#330000">1.1 About this FAQ.</font></h2>
111
112<blockquote><font color="#330000">This FAQ was written and is maintained
113by Chris Allegretta &lt;<a href="mailto:chrisa@asty.org">chrisa@asty.org</a>>,
114who also happens to be the creator of nano.&nbsp;&nbsp; Maybe someone else
115will volunteer to maintain this FAQ someday, who knows...</font></blockquote>
116
117<h2>
118<a NAME="1.2"></a><font color="#330000">1.2. How do I contribute to it?</font></h2>
119
120<blockquote><font color="#330000">Your best bet is to send it to the nano
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]121email address, <a
122href="mailto:nano@nano-editor.org">nano@nano-editor.org</a> and if
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]123it is useful enough it will be included in future versions.</font></blockquote>
124
125<h2>
126<a NAME="1.3"></a><font color="#330000">1.3. What is nano?</font></h2>
127
128<blockquote><font color="#330000">Nano is designed to be a free replacement
129for the Pico text editor, part of the PINE email suite from <a href="http://www.washington.edu/pine">The
130University of Washington</a>.&nbsp; It aims to "emulate Pico as closely
131as possible and perhaps include extra functionality WITHOUT breaking compatibility
132with Pico.</font></blockquote>
133
134<h2>
135<a NAME="1.4"></a><font color="#330000">1.4. What is the history behind
136nano?</font></h2>
137
138<blockquote><font color="#330000">Funny you should ask!</font>
139<p><b><font color="#330000">In the beginning...</font></b>
140<p><font color="#330000">For years Pine was THE program used to read email
141on a Unix system.&nbsp; The Pico text editor is the portion of the program
142one would use to compose his or her mail messages.&nbsp; Many beginners
143to Unix flocked to Pico and Pine because of their well organized, easy
144to use interfaces.&nbsp; With the proliferation of Linux in the mid to
145late 90's, many University students became intimately familiar with the
146strengths (and weaknesses) of Pine and Pico.</font>
147<p><b><font color="#330000">Then came debian...</font></b>
148<p><font color="#330000">The <a href="http://www.debian.org">debian GNU/Linux</a>
149distribution, known for its strict standards in distributing truly "free"
150software (i.e. had no restrictions on redistribution), would not include
151a binary package for Pine or Pico.&nbsp; Many people had a serious dilemma:&nbsp;
152they loved these programs, but they were not truly free software in the
153<a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">GNU</a>
154sense of the word.</font>
155<p><b><font color="#330000">The event...</font></b>
156<p><font color="#330000">It was in late 1999 when Chris Allegretta (our
157hero) was yet again complaining to himself about the less-than-perfect
158license Pico was distributed under, the 10000 makefiles that came with
159it and how just a few small improvements could make it the Best Editor
160in the World (TM).&nbsp; Having been a convert from Slackware to debian,
161he missed having a simple binary package that included Pine and Pico, and
162had grown tired of downloading them himself.</font>
163<p><font color="#330000">Finally something snapped inside and Chris coded
164and hacked like a madman for many hours straight one weekend to make a
165(barely usable) Pico clone, at the time called TIP (Tip Isn't Pico).&nbsp;
166The program could not be invoked without a filename, could not save files,
167had no help menu, spell checker, and so forth.&nbsp; But over time it improved,
168and with the help of a few great coders it matured to the almost stable
169state it is today.</font></blockquote>
170
171<h2>
172<a NAME="1.5"></a><font color="#330000">1.5. Why the name change from TIP?</font></h2>
173
174<blockquote><font color="#330000">On January 10, 2000, TIP was officially
175renamed to nano because of a namespace conflict with another program called
176'tip'.&nbsp; The original 'tip' program "establishes a full duplex terminal
177connection to a remote host", and was included with many older Unix systems
178(and newer ones like Solaris). The conflict was not noticed at first because
179there is no 'tip' utility included with most Linux distributions (where
180nano was developed).</font></blockquote>
181
182<h2>
183<a NAME="1.6"></a><font color="#330000">1.6 What is the current version
184of nano?</font></h2>
185
186<blockquote><font color="#330000">The current version of nano *should*
Chris Allegretta35d90252000-10-03 02:32:07 +0000[diff] [blame]187be 0.9.19.&nbsp; Of course you should always check the nano hompage to
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]188see what the latest and greatest version is.</font></blockquote>
189
190<h2>
191<a NAME="1.7"></a><font color="#330000">1.7. I want to read the man page
192without having to download the program!</font></h2>
193
194<blockquote><font color="#330000">Jeez, demanding, aren't we?&nbsp;&nbsp;
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]195Okay, look <a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/nano.1.html">here</a>.</font></blockquote>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]196
197<hr WIDTH="100%">
198<h1>
199<a NAME="2"></a><font color="#330000">2. Where to get nano</font></h1>
200
201<h2>
202<a NAME="2.1"></a><font color="#330000">2.1. FTP and WWW sites that carry
203nano.</font></h2>
204
205<blockquote><font color="#330000">The nano distribution can be downloaded
206at the following fine web and ftp sites:</font>
207<ul>
208<li>
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]209<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist">http://www.nano-editor.org/dist</a></font></li>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]210
211<li>
212<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist">http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist</a></font></li>
213
214<li>
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]215<font color="#330000"><a href="ftp://ftp.nano-editor.org/pub/nano">ftp://ftp.nano-editor.org/pub/nano</a></font></li>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]216
217<li>
218<font color="#330000"><a href="ftp://nano.sourceforge.net/pub/nano/">ftp://nano.sourceforge.net/pub/nano</a></font></li>
219</ul>
220</blockquote>
221
222<h2>
223<a NAME="2.2"></a><font color="#330000">2.2. Redhat and derivatives (.rpm)
224packages.</font></h2>
225
226<blockquote>
227<ul>
228<li>
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]229<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/RPMS">http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/RPMS</a></font></li>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]230
231<li>
232<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist/RPMS">http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist/RPMS</a></font></li>
233
234<li>
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]235<font color="#330000"><a href="ftp://ftp.nano-editor.org/pub/nano/RPMS">ftp://ftp.nano-editor.org/pub/nano/RPMS</a></font></li>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]236
237<li>
238<font color="#330000"><a href="ftp://nano.sourceforge.net/pub/nano/RPMS">ftp://nano.sourceforge.net/pub/nano/RPMS</a></font></li>
239</ul>
240<font color="#330000">Additionally, check out the Redhat contribs section
241at:</font>
242<ul>
243<li>
244<font color="#330000"><a href="http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/contrib/libc6/i386">http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/contrib/libc6/i386</a></font></li>
245
246<li>
247<font color="#330000"><a href="ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/contrib/libc6/i386">ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/contrib/libc6/i386</a></font></li>
248</ul>
249</blockquote>
250
251<h2>
252<a NAME="2.3"></a><font color="#330000">2.3. Debian (.deb) packages.</font></h2>
253
254<blockquote><font color="#330000">For debian users, you can check out the
255current nano packages for:</font>
256<ul>
257<li>
258<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.debian.org/Packages/frozen/editors/nano.html">frozen</a></font></li>
259
260<li>
261<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/editors/nano.html">unstable</a></font></li>
262</ul>
263<font color="#330000">Note that versions &lt; 0.9.10 are probably not for
264those wanting to get serious work done, so until the frozen/stable distributions
265have an updated version of nano, you are best off using the one in unstable
266for now.</font></blockquote>
267
268<h2>
269<a NAME="2.4"></a><font color="#330000">2.4. By CVS (for the brave).</font></h2>
270
271<blockquote><font color="#330000">For the 'bleeding edge' current version
272of nano, you can use CVS to download the current source code.&nbsp; <b>Note:</b>
273believe it or not, by downloading code that has not yet stabilized into
274an official release, there could quite possibly be bugs, in fact the code
275may not even compile!&nbsp; Anyway, see <a href="https://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=1304">the
276nano CVS page</a> for info on anonymous CVS access to the nano source.</font></blockquote>
277
278<hr WIDTH="100%">
279<h1>
280<a NAME="3"></a><font color="#330000">3. Installation and Configuration</font></h1>
281
282<h2>
283<a NAME="3.1"></a><font color="#330000">3.1. How do install the RPM or
284DEB package?</font></h2>
285
286<blockquote><font color="#330000">It's simple really!&nbsp; As root, type
287<b>rpm
288-Uvh nano-x.y.z-1.i386.rpm</b> if you have a Redhat-ish system or
289<b>dpkg
290-i nano_x.y.z-1.deb</b> if you have a Debian-ish system, where
291<b>x.y.z</b>
292is the release of nano.&nbsp; There are other programs to install programs,
293and if you wish to use those, knock yourself out.</font></blockquote>
294
295<h2>
296<a NAME="3.2"></a><font color="#330000">3.2. Compiling from source: WHAT
297THE HECK DO I DO NOW?</font></h2>
298
299<blockquote><font color="#330000">Okay, take a deep breath, this really
300isn't hard.&nbsp; Unpack the nano source with a command like:</font>
301<p><b><font color="#330000">tar -zxvf nano-x.y.z.tar.gz</font></b>
302<p><font color="#330000">If you get error messages about the -z option,
303try this:</font>
Chris Allegretta8c81d232000-08-16 02:52:44 +0000[diff] [blame]304<p><b><font color="#330000">gzip -dc nano-x.y.z.tar.gz | tar xvf -</font></b>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]305<p><font color="#330000">(again, where x.y.z is the version number in question).&nbsp;
306Then you need to run configure with any options you might want (if any).</font>
307<p><font color="#330000">The average case is this:</font>
308<p><b><font color="#330000">./configure</font></b>
309<br><b><font color="#330000">make</font></b>
310<br><font color="#330000"><b>make install </b>(as root, of course)</font></blockquote>
311
312<h2>
313<a NAME="3.3"></a><font color="#330000">3.3. Why does everything go into
314/usr/local?</font></h2>
315
316<blockquote><font color="#330000">Well, that's what the <b>configure</b>
317script defaults to.&nbsp; If you wish to change this, simply do this:</font>
318<p><b><font color="#330000">./configure --prefix=/usr</font></b>
319<p><font color="#330000">to put nano into /usr/bin when you run <b>make
320install</b>.</font></blockquote>
321
322<h2>
323<a NAME="3.4"></a><font color="#330000">3.4. I get errors about 'bindtextdomain',
324'gettext' and/or 'gettextdomain'.&nbsp; What can I do about it?</font></h2>
325
326<blockquote><font color="#330000">Try doing a <b>./configure --with-included-gettext</b>
327and see if that solves your problem.&nbsp; You make need to do a <b>make
328clean ; make</b> to get it to work fully.</font></blockquote>
329
330<hr WIDTH="100%">
331<h1>
332<a NAME="4"></a><font color="#330000">4. Running</font></h1>
333
334<h2>
335<a NAME="4.1"></a><font color="#330000">4.1. Ack!&nbsp; My backspace/delete/enter/double
336bucky/meta key doesn't seem to work!&nbsp; What can I do?</font></h2>
337
338<blockquote><font color="#330000">Try setting your $TERM variable to 'vt100'.&nbsp;
339Nano doesn't yet support every term entry under the sun.</font>
340<p><font color="#330000">Bourne shell users (like bash): <b>export TERM=vt100</b></font>
341<br><font color="#330000">C Shell users (tcsh and csh): <b>setenv TERM
342vt100</b></font></blockquote>
343
344<h2>
345<a NAME="4.2"></a><font color="#330000">4.2. Nano crashes when I type &lt;insert
346keystroke here>!</font></h2>
347
348<blockquote><font color="#330000">If you aren't trying some bizarre keystroke
349combination with some bizarre $TERM entry, chances are you have found a
350bug.&nbsp;&nbsp; You are welcome to submit it to the nano-devel list or
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]351to <a href="mailto:nano@nano-editor.org">nano@nano-editor.org</a>.</font></blockquote>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]352
353<h2>
354<a NAME="4.3"></a><font color="#330000">4.3. Nano crashes when I resize
355my window.&nbsp;&nbsp; How can I fix that?</font></h2>
356
357<blockquote><font color="#330000">Older versions of nano had this problem,
358please upgrade to a newer version (at least 0.9.9 would be great, 0.9.
35912 is recommended).</font></blockquote>
360
361<h2>
362<a NAME="4.4"></a><font color="#330000">4.4. Why does nano show ^\ and
363^_ in the shortcut list instead of ^G and ^J?</font></h2>
364
365<blockquote><font color="#330000">The help (^G) and justify (^J) functions
366were among the last to be written.&nbsp; To show the improvements that
367nano had over Pico (goto line # and replace), ^_ and ^\ were put on the
368shortcut list.&nbsp;&nbsp; If you use the <b>-p</b> option to nano you
369will get the same shortcuts at the bottom as Pico.</font></blockquote>
370
371<h2>
372<a NAME="4.5"></a>4.5 How do I make nano my default editor (in Pine, mutt,
373etc)?</h2>
374
375<blockquote>You need to make nano your $EDITOR.&nbsp; If you want this
376to be saved, you should put a line like this in your <b>.bashrc</b> if
377you use bash:
378<p><b>export EDITOR=/usr/local/bin/nano</b>
379<p>or if you use tcsh put this in your <b>.cshrc</b> file:
380<p><b>setenv EDITOR /usr/local/bin/nano</b>
381<p>Change /usr/local/bin/nano to wherever nano is installed in your system.&nbsp;
382Type which nano to find out. This will not take effect until the next time
383you login.&nbsp; So log out and back in again.
384<p>Then on top that if you use Pine you must go into setup (type <b>S</b>
385at the main menu), then configure (type <b>C</b>).&nbsp; Hit enter on the
386lines that say:
387<p><b>[ ]&nbsp; enable-alternate-editor-cmd</b>
388<br><b>[ ]&nbsp; enable-alternate-editor-implicitly</b>
389<p>Then exit (<b>E</b>) and select Yes (<b>Y</b>).
390<p>Mutt users should see an effect immediately the next time you log in,
391no further configuration is needed.&nbsp; However, if you want to let people
392know you use nano to compose your email messages, you can put a line like
393this in your <b>.muttrc</b>:
394<p><b>my_hdr X-Composer: nano x.y.z</b>
395<p>Again, replace x.y.z with the version of nano you use.
396<br>&nbsp;</blockquote>
397
398<hr WIDTH="100%">
399<h1>
400<a NAME="5"></a><font color="#330000">5. Internationalization</font></h1>
401
402<h2>
403<a NAME="5.1"></a><font color="#330000">5.1. There's no translation for
404my language!</font></h2>
405
406<blockquote><font color="#330000">So, uh, get someone who speaks your native
407language to write one =-).&nbsp; Just grab the <b>nano.pot</b> file from
408the latest and greatest nano distribution (it's in the <b>po/</b> directory)
409and translate each line into your native language on the <b>msgstr</b>
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]410line.&nbsp; Then send it to the nano devel list or <a href="mailto:nano@nano-editor.org">nano@nano-editor.org</a>.</font></blockquote>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]411
412<h2>
413<a NAME="5.2"></a><font color="#330000">5.2. I don't like the translation
414for &lt;x> in my language.&nbsp;&nbsp; How can I fix it?</font></h2>
415
416<blockquote><font color="#330000">The best way would probably be to e-mail
417the person listed in the <b>&lt;your_language>.po</b> file with your suggested
418corrections and they can in turn forward it to the nano email address,
419or the devel list.</font></blockquote>
420
421<hr WIDTH="100%">
422<h1>
423<a NAME="6"></a><font color="#330000">6. Advocacy and Licensing</font></h1>
424
425<h2>
426<a NAME="6.1"></a><font color="#330000">6.1. Why should I use nano instead
427of Pico?</font></h2>
428
429<blockquote><font color="#330000">There are many reasons to use nano instead
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]430of Pico, a more complete list can be found at the <a href="http://www.nano-edior.org">nano
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]431homepage</a>.</font></blockquote>
432
433<h2>
434<a NAME="6.2"></a><font color="#330000">6.2. Why should I use Pico instead
435of nano?</font></h2>
436
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]437<blockquote>Again, check out the <a href="http://www.nano-editor.org">nano
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]438homepage</a> for a good summary of reasons.&nbsp; It really is a matter
439of personal preference as to which editor you should use.&nbsp; If you're
440the type of person who likes using the original version of a program, then
441Pico is the editor for you.&nbsp;&nbsp; If you're looking for a few more
442features and a 'better' license as far as adding your own changes (sacrificing
443mailer integration and a little stability), nano is the way to go.</blockquote>
444
445<h2>
446<a NAME="6.3"></a><font color="#330000">6.3. What is so bad about the PINE
447license?</font></h2>
448
449<blockquote><font color="#330000">Technically there is nothing "wrong"
450with the U of W license for Pine and Pico.&nbsp; However, it is&nbsp; not
451considered truly "free" according to the <a href="http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines">Debian
452Free Software Guidelines</a>.&nbsp; The only real problem as far as I'm
453aware as that there are limitations on the redistribution of programs based
454on the Pine and Pico source.&nbsp;&nbsp; So at a real nitty gritty level,
455these programs are not considered Free Software.&nbsp; This is why Pico
456isn't distributed in binary form in debian, and hence one of the main reasons
457nano was started.</font></blockquote>
458
459<h2>
460<a NAME="6.4"></a><font color="#330000">6.4. Okay, well what mail program
461should I use then?</font></h2>
462
463<blockquote><font color="#330000">Well, there is nothing stopping you from
464using Pine with nano (or Pine with Pico for that matter).&nbsp; But if
465you want to use programs that are considered Free Software, you may want
466to look into <a href="http://www.mutt.org">mutt</a>.&nbsp; It is a full-screen,
467console based mail program that actually has a lot more flexibility than
468Pine, but has a keymap included in the distribution that allows you to
469use the same keystrokes as Pine would to send and receive mail.&nbsp; It's
470also licensed under the GPL.</font></blockquote>
471
472<h2>
473<a NAME="6.5"></a><font color="#330000">6.5. Why doesn't UW simply change
474their license?</font></h2>
475
476<blockquote><font color="#330000">You're really not asking the right person
Chris Allegretta8c81d232000-08-16 02:52:44 +0000[diff] [blame]477here.&nbsp; I (Chris) waited a long time to see if UW would change their
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]478license because of the amount of high quality software being released and
479developed under the GPL without being taken advantage of by malicious corporate
480entities or other baddies, but no such luck so far.</font></blockquote>
481
482<h2>
483<a NAME="6.6"></a><font color="#330000">6.6. What if tomorrow UW changes
484the license to be truly Free Software?</font></h2>
485
486<blockquote><font color="#330000">Honestly nothing would make me happier
487than to see that happen.&nbsp; Nano would continue to be developed independently
488until such time as Pico had all the features nano did or the projects merged.&nbsp;
489That just does not seem very likely given that there has been no sign of
490any changes in the past few years in a positive direction.</font></blockquote>
491
492<hr WIDTH="100%">
493<h1>
494<a NAME="7"></a><font color="#330000">7. Miscellaneous</font></h1>
495
496<h2>
497<a NAME="7.1"></a><font color="#330000">7.1. Nano related mailing lists.</font></h2>
498
499<blockquote><font color="#330000">There are two mailing lists for nano
500hosted at <a href="http://www.sourceforge.net">SourceForge</a>, nano-announce
501and nano-devel.&nbsp; Nano-announce is a very low traffic list where new
502versions of nano are announced (surprise!)&nbsp; Nano-devel is a sometimes
503low, sometimes very high traffic list for dicussing the present and future
504development of nano.&nbsp; Here are links to where you can sign up for
505a given list:</font><font color="#330000"></font>
506<p><font color="#330000">nano-announce - <a href="http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/nano-announce">http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/nano-announce</a></font>
507<br><font color="#330000">nano-devel - <a href="http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/nano-devel">http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/nano-devel</a></font></blockquote>
508
509<h2>
510<a NAME="7.2"></a><font color="#330000">7.2. I want to send the development
511team a big load of cash (or just a thank you).</font></h2>
512
513<blockquote><font color="#330000">That's fine.&nbsp; Send it <a href="mailto:nano-devel@lists.sourceforge.net">our
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]514way</a>!&nbsp; Better yet, fix a <a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/BUGS">bug</a>
515in the program or implement a <a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/TODO">cool
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]516feature</a> and send us that instead (though cash is fine too).</font></blockquote>
517
518<h2>
519<a NAME="7.3"></a><font color="#330000">7.3. How do I submit a patch?</font></h2>
520
521<blockquote><font color="#330000">See Section <a href="#7.2">7.2</a>.</font></blockquote>
522
523<h2>
524<a NAME="7.4"></a><font color="#330000">7.4. How do I join the development
525team?</font></h2>
526
527<blockquote><font color="#330000">The easiest way is to consistently send
528in good patches that add some needed functionality, fix a bug or two and/or
529make the program more optimized/efficient.&nbsp; Then ask nicely and you
530will probably be added to the SourceForge development list and be given
531CVS write after awhile.&nbsp; There is a lot of responsibility that goes
532along with being a team member, so don't think it's just something to add
533to your resume.</font></blockquote>
534
535<h2>
536<a NAME="7.5"></a><font color="#330000">7.5. Can I have CVS write access?</font></h2>
537
538<blockquote><font color="#330000">Re-read Section </font><a href="#7.4">7.4</a><font color="#330000">
539and you should know the answer.</font></blockquote>
540
541<h1>
542<a NAME="8"></a>8. ChangeLog</h1>
543
544<blockquote>06/31/2000 - Initial framework.</blockquote>
Chris Allegrettac87a4112000-08-07 02:16:24 +0000[diff] [blame]545<P>
546$Id$
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]547</body>
548</html>