We need a Linux Annoyances book

Okay.

So what it it with Linux folks, anyways?

Some people say I'm stuck in the 80s, but to me, less is more as far as user interface stuff goes. So what's with having the default for ls in Linux be an angry fruit salad of blues, greens, reds and purples? Especially given that I typically use small point black text in a 95% gray xterm, in which all that color ls stuff is near illegible:

Holy crap folks, just because you can list files in 47 colors doesn't mean you should.

I've found that there's two things I do immediately after installing a Linux system (well, there's probably a hundred things, but these two save me from groaning every time do an ls, or, for that matter, virtually every time I type):

  1. Get rid of that STUPID-ass /etc/profile.d/colorls.csh file. NO. I do not want to do an ls and spend more time mentally parsing colors than reading text.

  2. Get rid of that retarded "We'll disable the delete key, after all everyone has an IntelliMouse, don't they?" junk in the XTerm app defaults file.

    If you hit the delete key and get some crap like [3~[3~ instead of deleting the text, you know what I mean. But the fix is simple. In your /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/XTerm file, you'll find a section like this: 

*VT100.translations:   #override \
                        Delete:    string(0x1b) string("[3~")  \n\
                        Home:      string(0x1b) string("[1~")  \n\
                        End:       string(0x1b) string("[4~")  \n\
~@Num_Lock              KP_Home:   string(0x1b) string("[1~")  \n\
~@Num_Lock              KP_End:    string(0x1b) string("[4~")  \n\
Shift                   F1:        string(0x1b) string("[23~") \n\
   .
   .
   .
Hey! I recognize that dumbass [3~! Yep. I never bothered figuring out what all the others are for, but I nixed the first three: 
! Retards.  Who cares about the freakin' wheel???
!
!*VT100.translations:   #override \
!                       Delete:    string(0x1b) string("[3~")  \n\
!                       Home:      string(0x1b) string("[1~")  \n\
!                       End:       string(0x1b) string("[4~")  \n\
!
*VT100.translations:   #override \
~@Num_Lock              KP_Home:   string(0x1b) string("[1~")  \n\
And wa-lah[1]. Delete works in any new xterms.

GBS

Maybe sometime I'll detail all the crap I had to go through to get the control key in the right place. Thank God for Type 4 keyboards.

2003.12.09

[1] 'Wa-lah' .. I love that, what's next, Asia view? "I've got that Asia view feeling all over again."