Date: Sun, 30 May 1999 01:07:06 -0500 (EST) From: Alfred Perlstein <bright@rush.net> To: Dustin Lang <dustinl@interchange.ubc.ca> Cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Ramblings from a Newbie... Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.990530005118.9491e-100000@cygnus.rush.net> In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.95q.990529215543.18774C-100000@netinfo3.ubc.ca>
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On Sat, 29 May 1999, Dustin Lang wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I've been playing with FreeBSD the last few days. I've got 3.2-Release
> installed, got a custom kernel built, and I'm now customizing things to
> my liking. Everything has gone smoothly, with a few bumps due to errors
> in the operator code (ie, me :).
>
> I come from a Linux background, so some of the BSDisms take a little
> getting used to. From what I've seen so far, FreeBSD seems like a good
> solid system with a lot of attention given to details. I'm impressed with
> the attention to security issues throughout. Also, my mind is still
> grappling with the idea that there is only _one_ distribution. ("What kind
> of system do you run?" "Well, I started out with Slackware 3.4, but now
> I'm running kernel 2.2.9 and glibc2 and... should I just send you
> `ldconfig -v`?" :)
>
> I have just one question, but it's not specific to FreeBSD or even BSD.
> Why on earth do people use vi? I'm not trying to start a flame war or
> anything, but it's just so unfriendly. Doing the install was simple
> and very friendly up until I did a 'chsh' and got vi! My editor of choice
> is pico, the editor that looks like pine and has instructions on the
> bottom. Sure, it's simple and doesn't have all the advanced features you
> might want in an editor, but for doing a 'chsh', it's sufficient! Of
> course, that's just me...
that's odd, freebsd has "ee" a simple editor that _should_ be the default...
I dislike ee and I hate pico. Pico is so featureless it's shameful,
for instance can you:
delete 5 lines quickly? 5dd
now go up 20 lines and insert that cut text? 20kP
append to end of line? A
replace all X for next 5 lines? :.,+5s/pattern/replace/g
go to a line, like 2000? 2000G
not worry about getting your lines wrapped? yes
and then there's wonderful "gvim" (/usr/ports/editors/vim)
which offers an X interface, mouse and syntax highlighting.
When I was first exposed to vi after using Pico I thought I'd never
use it as well, however since the professor at my school made sure
to ridicule you unless you were using vi several weeks into his
classes I soon made the switch. trust me, it's worth it.
Not only programmers and administrators benifit from vi but at my last
job it was even a requirement for the HTML people. It'll also save
your skin when/if you ever have to do something on a bare-install
commercial unix, as they mostly don't come equiped with anything
besides vi.
learn vi, it's good for you.
a lot of companies hiring for admin jobs ask a few vi questions as the
first thing of the interview, if you don't know the answers you should
consider the interview over.
-Alfred
> Before hitting reply and flaming me, check this out and have a chuckle...
> http://www.userfriendly.org/cartoons/archives/99may/19990508.html
> (disregard the Linux advertising/propaganda)
laff :)
I remeber edlin and have used "ex" quite a number of times to
fix really broken things...
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