On Thu, 8 Feb 1996, David C. Yi wrote:

On Thu, 8 Feb 1996, Nagisa Kanou wrote:
I like pico too!  vi and emac makes me wonder why people want things so 
obfuscated.  Kinda like what win95 did to the ibm :)
If we spam, lets get some more anime content in it at least.

Yes, before you ask...I use Pico, and tin, personally.  Though on my home 
system I use Xemacs for programming stuff. :)  I just hate any text 
editor where on half the systems, the help command maps to the backspace 
key.  (That was a really dumb default for Emacs)

Very Hastily Written Excuses For Fanfics
presents....

    UNIX 1/2
    With apologies to Rumiko Takahashi, and everyone on this list
     who has something resembling good taste.

Ranma glared angrily at his computer monitor.  He asked himself again why 
he took this stupid computer science class...who needed it anyway?

Then he looked three desks over at Tatewaki Kunou, another student in the 
local community center's computer science course, and remembered.  "That 
stupid bet," he thought to himself, "that I could do anything Kunou could 
better than him.  How was I supposed to know that he'd pick this?"

Once again, Ranma tried to access the helpfile in the emacs editor that 
students were supposed to use.  He couldn't understand why they had to 
use this program instead of the little editor 'pico' that came with the 
mail program they used.  "Beh, what good is this, anyway?" he thought 
angrily to himself.  "SO I learn how to use Internet...big deal.  No one 
on the net would like martial arts, and certainly there's no one out 
there who'd believe my situation anyway."  Once again, Ranma pressed the 
command that was supposed to bring up the help for Emacs, but instead 
only ended up deleting another character.  "AAAARGH!"

"Well, Saotome...is this proving too much for your simple, barbarian's 
mind?"  Ranma turned around...Kunou stood behind him.  "Perhaps you wish 
to concede that I win the bet?"

"N-no!" exclaimed Ranma, picturing in his mind having to admit that Kunou 
was better than him at something.  "I just...well, this stupid program..."

Kunou gave a small smile.  "I suppose your simple mind can only handle 
the basics, such as the childish editor, pico.  The power of emacs is 
like that of a bokken, it can cut quicky through tasks, allowing you to 
do many things..."  Ranma tuned Kunou out.

"Argh, I'll just wait and try out news."  Ranma ran the program 'nn', 
only to hear Kunou begin to laugh slightly.  "What is it now, Kunou?"

Kunou gave a slight smirk.  "Again, you chose the barbarian's way...a 
program with no grace, no style..."

Ranma tried to ignore him, looking through newsgroups for something to 
read.  "What's this rec.arts.anime.stories thing, anyway?"

"I hear that it's amusing for the lower classes to read, for those who 
need such entertainment."

"Whatever, Kunou.  Maybe you should read it...you might learn something."

"I doubt it.  Saotome, why do you not use 'tin' instead of 'nn'?  It has 
much more power...the power to organize messages into groups, the power 
to be reconfigured as you desire..."

Ranma gritted his teeth.  "Because," he said angrily, "I could get it to 
work."  Kunou smirked again, wider this time.

"Look, Kunou...this has nothing to do with ANYTHING!  It's just stupid!  
Nothing of value happens on that Internet thing!  Why don't we just 
settle this bet with a fight, like normal?"

Kunou shook his head.  "Alas, Saotome, I fear you are not suited for 
today's society.  Perhaps Akane should marry someone with a future ahead 
of them, such as myself.  Yes, and the pig-tailed goddess, as well...I'm 
sure she could find value in the shining web that spans the world..." 
Kunou's eyes got starry.

Ranma grew angrier, finally hitting boiling point at the comment about 
the pig-tailed girl.

"All right, Kunou...that's IT!"

---
I leave the rest to you, the reader. ;)