* Package name : msedit Version : 1.2.1 Upstream Author : Microsoft Inc. * URL : https://github.com/microsoft/edit * License : MIT Programming Lang: Rust Description : Console text editor (Microsoft Edit) Microsoft recently released an easy to use console text editor written in Rust licensed as MIT. Personally, I would love to see this be the default text editor for the Linux console because it should be the most familiar choice available for new users. Edit/msedit works with or without a mouse and is optimized for large files. And it has the same key bindings and interface modality as your web browser's text editor. It also still knows about code pages, line endings, regular expressions and tab settings. So I went and checked with the Edit/msedit team at Microsoft and they said they would be cool with me setting up a Debian package for it. Is adding a .deb for this one a realistic thing for me to want to do? I will be happy to maintain the packaging. Microsoft already has an active open source community committing a stream of PRs to this project. However, their Linux install is just ad-hoc. Thanks!
A Johnston dijo [Sat, Nov 22, 2025 at 10:46:17AM -0800]: Wow, this looks like a quite nice addition! I see several other well-known distributions already package it, which makes me think the licensing is actually correct and not something to trick you into signing with blood... You are getting too ahead of yourself with this ;-) Much as I despise nano as a braindead and too limited editor, there are arguments for it... And if we are going to choose a new default editor, I will be pushing for The Right One™. I am dismayed that, 50 years after its introduction, the proportion of people with polydactilia hasn't increased — but with the right incentives, such as having the Linux world coalesce as a single mind behind Emacs, we will surely reach the goal of many more fingers per hand. </joking> I see no obstacle! It really looks like a good contribution. You have to check which libraries/crates it pulls from, how deep its chain of dependencies goes... Because Rust still suffers from being a dynamic-linking-averse language.
A Johnston dijo [Sat, Nov 22, 2025 at 10:46:17AM -0800]: Wow, this looks like a quite nice addition! I see several other well-known distributions already package it, which makes me think the licensing is actually correct and not something to trick you into signing with blood... You are getting too ahead of yourself with this ;-) Much as I despise nano as a braindead and too limited editor, there are arguments for it... And if we are going to choose a new default editor, I will be pushing for The Right One™. I am dismayed that, 50 years after its introduction, the proportion of people with polydactilia hasn't increased — but with the right incentives, such as having the Linux world coalesce as a single mind behind Emacs, we will surely reach the goal of many more fingers per hand. </joking> I see no obstacle! It really looks like a good contribution. You have to check which libraries/crates it pulls from, how deep its chain of dependencies goes... Because Rust still suffers from being a dynamic-linking-averse language.
Among Debian's [teams] one is dedicated to [Rust] in particular. Their site provides basic information about policies to respect and how to start. In addition to this, the page compiles a couple of contact addresses, too. [teams]: https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/ [Rust]: https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/RustPackaging
Thanks for the advice. Let me leave this bug open for now while I follow up.
Yep, you are supposed to leave it open until you complete the package.
Oh, I forgot to mention the [mentors page] with its traffic light like indicators to help you to polish the package, invite for peer review, and seek a sponsor for the upload to branch testing. With a package accepted to testing (at present Debian 14/forky), you and your sponsor may discuss an optional [backport] to the stable branch (at present Debian 13/trixie). [mentors page]: https://mentors.debian.net/ [backport]: https://backports.debian.org/