vi in hell mode, was RE: NSI... moving a domain

[Nathan Saper]

As someone on comp.editors said, "I like VIM because, when I ask a question
in [comp.editors], I get a one-line answer.  With xemacs, I get a 1Kb lisp
script with bugs in it. ;-)"

On Wed, Feb 28, 2001 at 07:44:42AM -0700, sinck@ugive.com wrote:
> 
> \_ I still fumble around in vi - apparently the days of line editors have
> \_ finally escaped me. I think I probably couldn't use edlin anymore or
> \_ whatever that attrocious thing was that I used on VAX. Give me emacs  ;-)
> \_ 
> \_ With that, I'm clocking out and I'll leave the editor wars to everyone else.
> 
> Sancho!  My Sword!  My Armor!
> 
> [Yes! Your Grace.]
> 
> Oh, um, sorry.  Every now and again, I fire up vi after saying
> term=unknown.  Keeps me competent for when things get really bad.  :-)

Good idea.  That's one of the nicest things about vi: it ALWAYS works.

> On the flip side, emacs rules.  I've coded hooks so that when I commit
> a CGI file (either via CVS or RCS) it a) commits b) throws a http log
> message, and c) logs the update to my personal work history database.
> Beat that with a stick.

The same could be accomplished by writing some shell scripts and using "map"
and "au" commands in vim.  And with vim, you don't have to learn a whole new
language just to get things working.

"Emacs is a nice OS - but it lacks a good text editor.  That's why I am
using Vim."

I think that sums it up.  Emacs tries to be an entire OS.  It suffers from
the same disease that Microsoft does: Let's add as many features as we can,
so we can have one program that does everything!  If I want to read my mail,
I'll use a MUA; if I want to browse the web, I'll use a web browser.  I
don't need to do everything from within my text editor.

Having said that, I think the editor war is fairly silly.  I have my reasons for
using vi, you have your reasons for using Emacs.  What text editor to use is
a personal choice.

-- 
[ Nathan Saper (natedog@well.com)  http://www.well.com/user/natedog/ ]
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