Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 17:05:13 -0700 (PDT) From: David Wolfskill <dhw@whistle.com> To: newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: A first encounter with 'vi' Message-ID: <199806190005.RAA12191@pau-amma.whistle.com>
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>Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 16:39:03 -0700 >From: Tim Gerchmez <fewtch@serv.net> >OK, let me ask you this. Are there any other editors that are as >ubiquitous as vi that may be a *little* easier to learn and use? Most >machines have Pine/Pico installed as well, don't they? A couple of things before I give my (probably unsatisfactory) answer: * I'm still fairly new with FreeBSD, so I'm not all that certain of "norms" in the community with respect to that question. * The pine/pico set isn't installed by default, near as I can tell: pau-amma[2]% which pine pico emacs jove ed ex sed /usr/local/bin/pine /usr/local/bin/pico /usr/local/bin/emacs jove: Command not found. /bin/ed /usr/bin/ex /usr/bin/sed pau-amma[3]% (On this system, /usr/local actually resides on a server; it's not on the machine in question.) * I've been using vi since '86... and I've become accustomed to it -- to the point that ee (for example) drives me batty. * There have been times when I've need to edit a system file in single-user mode... and I couldn't use vi (or it would take to long to set up the environment for it to be able to work), so I just used ex. A very solid, thorough grounding in regular expressions can prove exceedingly helpful -- and since "ex" commands are what you execute in "vi" if you type a ":" before the command, I was able to get the job done quickly & reboot the system. * All that said, I work as a UNIX systems administrator; it isn't necessarily the case that you will have even vaguely similar concerns. As for the "unsatisfactory answer" -- probably not. Think about what makes an editor "easy to use" for you, and think about the circumstances where you're likely to need to use it. The fancier the editor, the more support it needs from the runtime environment (generally). And I'll guarantee that "vi" is about the "friendliest" editor I have on the home Suns.... Maybe someday I'll tell the story about teaching the young woman (who later married me) how to use "vi" after she had been used to using the editor on an Apple ][.... :-} (Short version -- she got Real Upset with me for a couple of days... then got used to it.... and now prefers vi to GUI things. And she's a biologist, not someone who plays with computers all the time.) Cheers, david -- David Wolfskill UNIX System Administrator dhw@whistle.com voice: (650) 577-7158 pager: (650) 371-4621 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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