From kragen@dnaco.net Sun Sep 6 16:06:04 1998 Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 16:06:03 -0400 (EDT) From: Kragen To: systalk@ml.org Subject: Re: [ST] Is it just me ... In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Keywords: X-UID: 1696 Status: O X-Status: On Sun, 6 Sep 1998, Lars Hellsten wrote: > On Sun, 6 Sep 1998, Kragen wrote: > > Using vim still requires learning enough of the vi command set to not > > have to pause to remember commands. Its only advantage over vi itself > > is that it seems to understand cursor keys more reliably. :) > > Well, I think that with any editor you have to remember commands. Yes, in > PICO you can look at the bottom of the screen, but what if you want to do > something more complicated than exit, save, etc? The real difference is doing things *less* complicated than exit, save, etc. Like move around, insert characters, and use word-wrap. > But still, once I learned > the commands, I became SO much more efficient than I've ever been with any > other editor! I've experienced something similar. > vim has plenty of other advantages over vi other than termcap support. I > usually miss thesewhen I use regular vi (although I still prefer regular vi > over most editors). For instance: syntax colouring, multiple undo, split > windows, visual selection, formatting, multiple buffers, and I'm sure there > are other nice features I'm missing. I didn't mean vim was feature-equal to vi. I meant that vim's usability was essentially equal to vi's, except that vi doesn't do very well recognizing cursor keys reliably. But now that you mention it, visual selection v and automatic word-wrap (once you figure out how to turn it on!) are definite usability advantages over vi. > > Emacs provides quite a bit more power than vi, really. It provides so > > much power, I didn't bother to install it on my machine at home due to > > the amount of disk it would use. :) > > I can read my mail and browse the web with vim which is more than I need in > a text editor anyway, so as far as I'm concerned they're equal. :) Really? That's pretty astonishing. When did vim learn how to read mail and browse the Web? Are those capabilities in 4.6? (with emacs, you can browse the web with inline images, you can click on compiler errors to take you to the source-code line where the compiler reported the error, you can visually diff files with ediff, you can resolve merge conflicts with ediff, and you can write stuff in Lisp.) Kragen -- Kragen Sitaker I don't do .INI, .BAT, .DLL or .SYS files. I don't assign apps to files. I don't configure peripherals or networks before using them. I have a computer to do all that. I have a Macintosh, not a hobby. -- Fritz Anderson