Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 23:38:57 +0100 From: "James A Wilde" <james.wilde@telia.com> To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Programmers' editor? Message-ID: <008301bf3795$dd4a6bc0$8208a8c0@iqunlimited.net> References: <Pine.BSF.4.21.9911231240360.4557-100000@fw.wintelcom.net> <00e101bf3681$44cb04a0$8c0aa8c0@hk.tbv.se> <19991124103253.B2554@orion.ac.hmc.edu> <19991124135521.44585@mojave.sitaranetworks.com> <19991125192634.B316@marder-1> <19991125153045.40243@mojave.sitaranetworks.com>
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> Brave man. With "newbie", I really meant somebody who hadn't used > either editor. I'm not trying to convert vi users. No contest. I'm not that much of a masochist that I'm going to start = emacs a third time. First time, that joke about reboot was no joke. Second = time I=20 noted the instructions which flash past at start up on how to exit the = damn=20 thing and after about five minutes of trying and not getting anywhereI = used=20 the instructions and took myself out. No doubt I have made enemies of a lot of people with that statement but=20 I think one has to consider the kind of use to which the editor is being = put. A programmer, wanting to hack a line and recompile or check that all=20 open parentheses have equivalent close parentheses, needs a working environment and will probably be prepared to spend the time learning something as complex as emacs. I call myself a system administrator,=20 which will probably make many of you smile, but it means that the kind=20 of editing I do is poking around in named.conf or editing a make file to = compile a port for my machine. For that kind of job even vi is ott. I'm glad the person who showed vi to me showed me :q! as the first=20 command I learnt. I now have the list of instructions someone in here=20 was kind enough to send me on a post-it note on the monitor, where=20 most people have their password. Most people probably think it is=20 my password! Another problem I have is that I have two FreeBSD machines stuck=20 in a dusty corner of the server room to which I log on via ssh2, so all=20 the finesses of multiple virtual terminal windows and X are out - to be=20 sure I can have two ssh2 sessions open which is pretty much the=20 same thing, but fancy GUI editors are not available. Sed appears to=20 be on the level of edlin. And what, then is more natural at the=20 command prompt than typing vi <filename>? Someone suggested=20 ee but it's already too late. I won't say I'm happy with vi but, like = so=20 many relationships, I'm beginning to be comfortable with it.=20 And now I'll have to go back and put CRLF in appropriate places in=20 this message so you'll all be able to read it. <sigh> Anyone know a good mail program that formats mail for an 80 character terminal? :) mvh/regards James To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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