[Bug 291279] [Feature Request] Add UTF-8 Support to ee(1)

https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=291279

            Bug ID: 291279
           Summary: [Feature Request] Add UTF-8 Support to ee(1)
           Product: Base System
           Version: 15.0-RELEASE
          Hardware: Any
                OS: Any
            Status: New
          Severity: Affects Only Me
          Priority: ---
         Component: standards
          Assignee: [email protected]
          Reporter: [email protected]

As the default text editor shipped with the FreeBSD base system, ee(1) is
extremely simple, intuitive, and helpful for out-of-the-box use, especially for
newcomers or for quick system edits. However, one of its major limitations
compared to editors such as nano is the lack of UTF-8 support.

At present, any Chinese characters or other non-ASCII text cannot be displayed
correctly in ee(1). They are rendered as sequences such as “~~ MM MM MM M~ M~”
or similar incorrect byte representations. This issue has been discussed in the
community for a long time, but I could not find an existing feature request or
open discussion in the FreeBSD bug tracker.

I also noticed that editors/microsoft-edit provides a simple, user-friendly
editor with full UTF-8 support, and its license is compatible with the FreeBSD
project. However, I understand the project currently does not intend to
introduce Rust into the base system, so this option may not be feasible.

Given these constraints, I believe it would be valuable for FreeBSD to include
at least one simple, UTF-8-capable text editor in the base system, whether by
enhancing ee(1) or by adopting an alternative solution. For users working with
multilingual environments, modern terminals, or UTF-8 locales, this would
significantly improve usability and reduce friction.

Thank you for considering this request.

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