I used to use lightweight editors on small systems like vi (not vim, the smaller vi).
But when I discovered emacs tramp mode, I sort of got away from that.
emacs comes with tramp mode built-in and allows you to edit a file on even very small embedded devices using only ssh.
I think it might work on telnet or other protocols, but I've never tried them.
for example
emacs /ssh:foo:/etc/bar.cfg
or
emacs /ssh:user@host:.profile
Re:The JED Programmer's Editor (2017)
by dan-robertson on Sunday May 03, 2020 @09:19AM
(#23058817)
The thing which I wish was easy is having ssh pass enough things forward (and backward) that you can ssh somewhere, run emacsclient on a file and have that file show up (via tramp) in your emacs.
It’s just about possible but hard and hacks and not really supported by ssh.
The syntax for tramp-mode is on the arcane side.
I mostly use emacs /ssh:ab:.bashrc which I think compares favorably with
ssh ab
emacs .bashrc
my .ssh/config contains a "Host ab" section for particulars about logging into the machine.
Although you have a point. For instance there is a weird bug or two in tramp mode, like (absolute-file-p "/ssh:ab:.bashrc") erroneously returns t
JED is a text editor that makes extensive use of the S-Lang library. It is highly cross-platform compatible; JED runs on Windows and all flavors on Linux and Unix. Older versions are available for DOS. It is also very lightweight (meaning very parsimonious in its use of system resources), which makes it an ideal editor for older systems, embedded systems, etc. JED's Emacs mode is one of the most faithful emulations available.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JED_(text_editor)