Path: utzoo!yunexus!ists!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!husc6!genrad!jpn
From: jpn@genrad.com (John P. Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: vi for MS-DOS?
Keywords: vi
Message-ID: <28831@genrad.UUCP>
Date: 16 Nov 89 21:43:08 GMT
Article-I.D.: genrad.28831
References: <13219@silica.BBN.COM> <1593@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <1989Nov14.231504.20173@mks.com> <3746@puff.cs.wisc.edu>
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Reply-To: jpn@genrad.UUCP (John P. Nelson)
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In article <3746@puff.cs.wisc.edu> schneide@rt8.cs.wisc.edu (Daniel Schneidewend) writes:
>The 'Z' editor that comes with the AZTEC C package is an excellent
>implementaton of VI for the PC.

Yuck.  Either AZTEC has improved their editor immeasurably, or we have
different definitions of the word "excellent".

I bought a copy of Z (standalone, without the compiler) several years ago
when I first started working with a PC.  I found Z to a particularly
deficient implementation of "vi":

->  It is limited to files about 32K in length.  I'm not sure why the
    limit isn't 64K, but it isn't.  Watch out when editing a file near the
    limit too:  delete/yank/paste operations can cause it to run out of
    memory.

->  It doesn't have the "feel" of vi.  While the "most common" functions are
    there, the shortcuts I use all the time are missing.  I found it incredibly
    frustrating to use.

Believe me, the public-domain "stevie" is a MUCH better implementation of
"vi" than Z is.

     john nelson

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