(If don't want to link curses and terminfo)

For me ait is a 277.3K static binary (musl)

Here's an earlier "Anthony's Editor" by Anthony Howe of MK Systems for IOCC 1991

https://www.ioccc.org/1991/ant/index.html

Here is a message about writing editors he sent to comp.editors in 1991

https://web.archive.org/web/20031214211718if_/http://ned.rub...

https://web.archive.org/web/20040221091356if_/http://ned.rub...

The later Anthony's Editor upon which atto is based, from 1993:

https://web.archive.org/web/20101130024855if_/http://sites.g...

The atto author got it to compile on GNU/Linux:

https://github.com/hughbarney/Anthonys-Editor--for-Ubuntu-Li...

According to the above Usenet communication, Howe was not a CS major

Perhaps this explains why his IOCC entries are so good IMHO

His 6086-character grep-like utility, "ag", from 1993 is all-time favorite

It still compiles today: 30.6K static binary (musl)