Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!aries!mcdonald
From: mcdonald@aries.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: vi (vs VMS/EDT)
Keywords: DEC bashing
Message-ID: <1989Nov15.202718.12762@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 15 Nov 89 20:27:18 GMT
References: <1989Nov14.223604.17418@cs.eur.nl>
Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Reply-To: mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald)
Organization: School of Chemical Sciences, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Lines: 26

In article <1989Nov14.223604.17418@cs.eur.nl> henk@cs.eur.nl (Henk Langeveld) writes:
>
>Vi is one of those things of which you think, when you first encounter 
>it: "How will I ever tame this monster?"   But once you realize 
>the basic principle of input/command/line mode, it's not so bad at
>all.  
>
The problem with using vi is not LEARNING it, it is using it. LEarning
is easy. Using is impossible: its command structure is broken,
hopeless beyond any hope of repair. Consider this: start typing
in something (after hitting "i" of course) then step mout for a Coke. 
Come back: your cursor is in the middle of the page. Are you in 
insert mode or not? Start typing - DAMMIT - oops, I forgot that
I really DID hit escape before going for that Coke. Utter mess
ensues.

EDT is a reasonable editor. Emacs is a reasonable editor. There
are dozens of fine editors for PC's and Macs. But vi is hopeless,
worse than worthless.

OF all the flame wars on Usenet, those against vi are the best.

"Hate" and "loathing" are too mild. The only appropriate word
is "murder".

Doug McDonald