Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 03:16:02 -0400 From: Jim Conner <jconner@enterit.com> To: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> Cc: "Roelof Osinga" <roelof@nisser.com>, "Jason Halbert" <jason@jason-n3xt.org>, <questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: vi Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.0.20010613031436.02512ae0@mail.enterit.com> In-Reply-To: <001201c0f113$fc324740$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> References: <3B22198F.CB4908A3@nisser.com>
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Here here!! Well said. I don't like emacs, I don't like pico...nor do I like ee. Plain old vi. Although, I do tend to prefer vim over vi for syntax highlighting. Sometimes, 'bells and whistles' is for the birdies. - Jim At 11:42 AM 6/9/2001 -0700, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > >-----Original Message----- > >From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG > >[mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Roelof Osinga > > > >> I'm just curious of it's advantages over joe or pico or any of the > >> others. > > > >It was available, the rest wasn't <g>. The edge over emacs was its size > >and simplicity. Not to mention its weird attraction on programmers ;). > > > >There's more to it than that. vi is very clever about minimal use of cursor >control characters during the file edit. It is possible and comfortable to >use vi to edit a file when connected to the UNIX system with no more than a >300 baud modem connection. > >While few people use 300 baud modem connections these days, if one day you >find yourself telneted into a UNIX system that's located in deep South >America, >behind 3 overloaded 56K links and a satellite connection, then vi is the >only >thing that your going to be able to use to do any visual editing, all those >fancier editors that waste characters drawing menus and such on the screen >will >be unusable. The actual editing process itself is also very fast because >vi extends the minimal character paradigm to the commands themselves, many >are no more than 2 keystrokes. > >The big disadvantage of vi is that it's "not like all the other editors out >there" >which I suppose makes it "non-intuitive" (someone one day is going to have >to >explain how human intuition has anything to do with technology, Fagh!) The >other editors make things very easy for newbies with features that get in >the >way of experienced people. vi makes things very easy for the experienced >person by subtracting all the gingerbread that makes it easy for newbies to >use. As a result, vi's popularity tends to be directly proportional to the >experience of the admin. ;-) > >Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com >Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide >Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com > > > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message - Jim - NOTJames - jconner@enterit.com - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - | Today's errors, in contrast: | - | Windows - "Invalid page fault in module kernel32.dll at 0032:A16F2935" | - | UNIX - "segmentation fault - core dumped" | - | Humans - "OOPS, I've fallen and I can't get up" | - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - (To view this properly use a non-proportional font in your MUA) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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