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From: ts@uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: looking for *simple* unix editor
Message-ID: <1991May28.062841.3170@uwasa.fi>
Date: 28 May 91 06:28:41 GMT
References: <1991May24.162654.2462@cpsc.ucalgary.ca> <1991May25.100139.6060@uwasa.fi> <8052@auspex.auspex.com>
Organization: University of Vaasa, Finland
Lines: 76

In article <8052@auspex.auspex.com> guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) writes:
:
>If so, then you need to indicate what that editor was, and what about it
>led you to that conclusion, so that we know whether your experience
>really *can* be the basis of such a conclusion or not.
:

Let me take a shortcut by responding by this extract from my
/pc/ts/tsfaq21.arc even if it has mostly PC specific stuff in it. 
(The Unix editors I've tried at one stage or another are MicroEmacs,
Emacs, and vi). 

15. *****
 Q: What is the best text editor?

 A: These are difficult questions, especially since almost every
user is more or less biased in favor of the program he/she is best
familiar with. In the case of text editors these personal views
easily flare up into what is appropriately termed as "editor wars".
But also objectively speaking there is a good rationale for
defending the editor one is used to. Almost each editor involves a
great number of predefined (or customizable) key combinations, which
at first are difficult to learn, but very natural after one has
gotten used to them after extended exposure. This means, that
changing over to another editor (even a considerably better one)
will involve a high cost of learning. This explains the ardent
defensive positions users tend to take, if they feel that their
hard-learned habits come under threat when someone else puts down
their favorite editor (let alone insists on changing over to their
own editor choice). This is how most editor wars break out.
   Once these cautionary words being said, let me tell you about my
own text editor choices. I would prefer to use only a single editor
to make life easier for me. This is has not been possible since I
have needed editors for several operating systems. These systems
have been MsDos, Unix, VAX/VMS, and at an earlier stage Sinclair QL
QDOS.
   Since I write quite a lot of programs in Turbo Pascal, this has
dictated my choice of the MsDos text editor to editors with WordStar
like commands. At one early stage I even used Turbo Pascal 3.02A as
my text editor besides as my compiler. Hence the obvious choice for
me has been /pc/editor/qedit21.zip SemWare's QEdit Advanced 2.1
shareware editor. It has very similar commands to Turbo Pascal's
integrated editor. There are just two features missing in QEdit
which I would like to have. One is the lack of markers to return
easily to a spot. The other is that I would dearly like to have the
possibility of right-adjusted text. These aside, Qedit has many nice
features including configurability, small size (an important
consideration for laptops), and useful macro programming (not very
easy, though). I also like and need its potential to copy and move
columns besides just rows. I won't make the error of saying here
that there aren't better text editors, but I can recommend this
editor as one good choice. Incidentally, I've written a couple of
macros for QEdit myself. They are available as /pc/ts/tsqed10.arc
from garbo.uwasa.fi anonymous ftp archives.
   In the VAX/VMS environment I earlier used its EDT editor, which
is well suited to MsKermit terminal emulation with the PC keypad
layout. But when we acquired a Unix Sun 4 to our computer centre as
our main computer, I simply had no other viable choice than to learn
to use MicroEmacs. Along with many other EDT users I still intensely
hate MicroEmacs (even if I am now fully conversant with it). But
as MicroEmacs is available for VAX/VMS I have dumped the EDT editor
in order to get by with fewer text editors. I even occasionally use
MicroEmacs on my PC for special tasks (eg very long lines) which
QEdit cannot handle. The point I want to make here is that the
portability of MicroEmacs has been important enough for me to
overcome my aversion of its user interface, even if I still feel it
is overly complicated to use.
   And what I have written here is typical of editor discussions.
Even if I've tried to be analytical, in retrospect this text much
more emotional than my average text.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
...................................................................
Prof. Timo Salmi
Moderating at garbo.uwasa.fi anonymous ftp archives 128.214.12.37
School of Business Studies, University of Vaasa, SF-65101, Finland
Internet: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi Funet: gado::salmi Bitnet: salmi@finfun