Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!nstn.ns.ca!news.cs.indiana.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!convex!swarren From: swarren@convex.com (Steve Warren) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: HEY- editor wars! Keywords: editor Message-ID: <1991Jan28.165534.110@convex.com> Date: 28 Jan 91 16:55:34 GMT References: Sender: usenet@convex.com (news access account) Organization: Convex Computer Corporation, Richardson, Tx. Lines: 55 Nntp-Posting-Host: neptune.convex.com In article t22918@iti.org (Matt Ranney ) writes: [...] >Well, it's got more of a window than our friend, vi. That was the reason I >put it in quotes. The only time I really use them is for compilation and >correcting errors. Under X-Windows, are they all resizable? _That_ would be >pretty cool. [...] The current X-windows part of GNU Emacs is nice. It comes up in it's own window which has all the hooks and gadgets attached that your particular environment is set up to support. In other words, yes. Using the emacsclient server you can keep an emacs window alive at all times, and each invocation of emacs will route the file into the existing emacs window. Whether you choose to use this feature depends on whether you prefer for your editor windows to proliferate. One advantage of GNU Emacs in X is that cursor positioning is mouse- controlled (if set up properly). You can also paste in data that was cut from another window. The only thing I haven't figured out how to do is to cut from a GNU Emacs window to paste into a TTY window. It works great going the other direction. For now I just do a 'less' on the file if I want to cut from it. A little awkward at times, but it gets the job done. BTW - the main difference that divides emacs users from vi users is the edit-mode vs insert-mode of vi, which is quite foreign to emacs users. Emacs users hate being forced to remember to switch modes when they make a mistake that needs to be corrected. The most common editing action I perform is a single character mistake which I backspace over and continue typing. In vi this requires you to (after the mistake) hit the to switch modes, then type 'x' to delete the character, then type 'a' to go back into insert mode at the end of the line. All you need to do in emacs is hit the backspace key to accomplish the same thing. Sure vi has single char commands. But interspersed with them is all the mode-switch commands that just aren't needed at all in emacs. In addition, once you have an X-term you tend to position your cursor 99% of the time using the mouse. So you don't need any commands for cursor positioning. Cutting text in emacs means 'point-and-click', 'ctl-space' (mark), 'point-and- click', 'ctl-w' (cut). Pasting means 'point-and-click', 'ctl-y' (paste). Since vi doesn't have any X hooks, you would spend all your time in vi getting your cursor positioned at the point of paste-buffer insertion (j-j-j-j-j-j-j- l-l-l-l-l, etc). I can't believe I just fired a salvo in an editor war ;^). I know there's a reason why I never post these things, but something about this newsgroup has affected my brain and I can't seem to remember the reasons why one should never argue about editors... -- _. --Steve ._||__ DISCLAIMER: All opinions are my own. Warren v\ *| ---------------------------------------------- V {uunet,sun}!convex!swarren; swarren@convex.com