Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!convex!news
From: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: One user's editor wish list
Message-ID: <1991Mar20.203201.26101@convex.com>
Date: 20 Mar 91 20:32:01 GMT
References: <1991Feb22.134323.20410@scrumpy@.bnr.ca> <11032@dog.ee.lbl.gov> <1991Mar20.191434.5634@scrumpy@.bnr.ca>
Sender: news@convex.com (news access account)
Reply-To: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Organization: CONVEX Software Development, Richardson, TX
Lines: 77
Nntp-Posting-Host: pixel.convex.com

From the keyboard of bnrmtl!lewis@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu:
|Agreed.  What I don't like in vi is that the editor (as opposed to my brain
|over which I have somewhat better control) can be in different modes with the
|cursor in the text area and I can't seem to remember which one and can't tell
|from just looking at the display (it looks exactly the same whether one is in
|insert mode or in command mode).

:set showinsert
:set si

most modern vi's support showinsert to avoid this.  i never use it myself,
as it annoys me, but beginning users seem to like it.  i'm used to 
typing esc if i'm unsure.

|Of course, and that's why there will never be any single editor to please
|everyone.  I should define this more carefully, but I'm not sure I can!
|As a first attempt, it's when I can guess without having to read the
|documentation.  If for example the key to split lines is C-S maybe I'll guess
|it.  If it's ESC C-Y C-Q META-F1 there's no chance!

exactly -- there are far more possible commmands then mnemonic keystrokes.

|What I mean is being able to add/remove them from file.  Of course they have
|to be made visible somehow.  The way vi does this is fine (except for tabs
|cause I don't see them - but maybe this can be changed); with emacs I don't
|know what it looks like, but I'm sure it's fine too.

:set list

This displays tabs as ^I and EOL as $.

|> The files are in a ring?  (makes no sense.)
|
|This is an XEDIT concept, it means simply    +-->  file A ---> file B ---+
|that the files are organized in a ring:      |                           |
|(and a single keystroke typically            +---  file C <--- file D <--+
|moves you from one file to the next)

That's why I bind ^N to be ":n +/".  Then ^N goes to the next file.
With autowrite and write any set, it works well.  


|Well not on MS-DOS unless I'm really out of it.  And why does mail start up
|n editors when I type "v 1-5" instead of just one editor if all editors do
|this (well, true, it would have to create many temporary files)?

sounds like mail's fault.

|> Both can recover, if by this you mean `bring the file back in'
|> (:e! in vi, read-file in Emacsen).
|
|No I mean have access somehow to original status of modified/deleted lines.
|Both XEDIT and PE2 have something of this type.  A full undo is of course
|much, much better.

for each line?


|> Vi allows piping through external programs to do it;
|
|That's fine, but what if I only want to reflow a single paragraph, not the
|whole file.  I guess I move the paragraph to another file, filter it, bring
|it back.  PE2 will let you reflow your paragraph with a single keystroke,
|emacs too I understand.

You can do a filter-region instead of the whole file.  

    :map = {!}fmt^M

|The same applies to sorting.  What if I want to sort only part of the file.
|In XEDIT, a single command will do it.

ditto.  name your region with marks or by targets, and send it through
your favorite sort with a !sort -rn kind of command.  this shouldn't be
built into your editors.

--tom