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Re: [LUG] VI alternative

 


James Fidell wrote:
> Alex Charrett wrote:
> 
>> On the other hand there's bound to be ocassions where vi is all you've got 
>> to try and rescue a system with.  I oringially learnt vi because I had to 
>> use Solaris at work, and now that's all I use.  Going back to something 
>> else just feels clunky!  Mmm, regex.
> 
> In the dim and distant past when I was a student, I used microemacs out
> of preference.  Then I got a job in the real world working for a company
> that was supplied hundreds of different UNIX(-like) machines by OEMs all
> over the world.  The only full-screen editor you could guarantee you'd
> find on any machine you logged into was vi, so I quickly learned to use
> it.  Almost twenty years later, vi is now so deeply ingrained in my
> subconcious that I don't think twice about how to do things and I still
> use it because it's pretty much the only editor you can be sure will be
> installed on any given system.  I'd love to have vi-style modal editing
> for thunderbird.  As you say, anything else just feels clunky,
> especially if it requires that I take my hands off the keyboard (or even
> away from the "home" keys, really) to perform some operations.
> 
> James
> 

The three odd things about vi is that a) how quickly it does get 
ingrained into you, I am forever trying to shut other programs with 
":wq" or similar; b) how everybody uses it is slighlty diffent ways; and 
c) how when you first use it it takes and age to work out how to close it.

Wills


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