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Date:      Fri, 26 Nov 1999 06:54:59 +0000
From:      Mark Ovens <mark@ukug.uk.freebsd.org>
To:        Thomas Good <tomg@mailhost.nrnet.org>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Programmers' editor?
Message-ID:  <19991126065458.A316@marder-1>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.96.991125201543.14551A-100000@mailhost.nrnet.org>
References:  <19991125192634.B316@marder-1> <Pine.LNX.3.96.991125201543.14551A-100000@mailhost.nrnet.org>

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On Thu, Nov 25, 1999 at 08:26:02PM -0500, Thomas Good wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Nov 1999, Mark Ovens wrote:
> 
> > OK, I'll comment. Since this emacs v. vi thing has reared it's head
> > again I used emacs instead of vi all day today (I even renamed vi, and
> > symlinked it to emacs to force myself).
> > 
> > After the first couple of hours finding my way around (much use of
> > C-h) I got quite productive with it. The biggest difference I had to
> > adjust to was the fact that it doesn't have a command mode, any non
> > Ctrl-, Meta-, Shift-, Esc- chars you type go into the document, but
> > once I got used to that it wasn't so bad.
> 
> Mark - I'm sitting here sipping a pint and scratching my head over
> this.  I'm wondering aloud why you'd be wanting to lose vi in favour
> of emacs.  (?)
> 

I'm not trying to lose vi in favour of emacs, I just think it will
be good to know both. I can see that Emacs has a lot of useful
features; running compilers & debuggers directly from the editor
for example, and much better handling of multiple files.

> First off, vi works well and most of us who use it, for whatever reason,
> have significant chunks of time invested in getting the console to
> stop beeping at us!
> 
> Secondly, I once heard a very convincing argument for learning and using
> vi.  If you get hired to work on a unix box, no matter what the 
> implementation, it will have vi.  Not so emacs, at least not immediately.
> 

I will continue to use both.

> I'm so used to vi

I was so used to Windows (and OS/2) once over but I still started
using FreeBSD. Guess I like having lots of strings to my bow :)

>  (not claiming proficiency tho) that I make it the default
> editor for email on the servers on my network.  Got tired of PICO complaining
> everytime I tried to go to command mode...or execute various commands
> when I've forgotten where I was.   ;-)
> 
> > PERL has been described as "the duct tape of the Internet"
> > and "the Unix Swiss Army chainsaw"
> 
> Yes - quite true.  For those of us who are incurable shell scripters, as
> opposed to programmers, perl has the look and feel of C but we can still
> manage to get something done!
> 
> BTW, I once thought about complaining to Larry Wall that Perl doesn't
> have an application development environment (except for the windows
> incarnation).  Then it ocurred to me - it does.  vi.  ;-)
> 
> Cheers,
> Tom Good
> 
> ------- North Richmond Community Mental Health Center -------
> 
> Thomas Good                                   MIS Coordinator
> Vital Signs:                  tomg@ { admin | q8 } .nrnet.org
>                                           Phone: 718-354-5528  
>                                           Fax:   718-354-5056  
>                               
> /* Member: Computer Professionals For Social Responsibility */ 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
PERL has been described as "the duct tape of the Internet"
and "the Unix Swiss Army chainsaw"
				- Computer Shopper 12/99
________________________________________________________________
      FreeBSD - The Power To Serve http://www.freebsd.org
      My Webpage http://ukug.uk.freebsd.org/~mark/
mailto:mark@ukug.uk.freebsd.org              http://www.radan.com



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