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From: les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: vi and emacs
Keywords: vi emacs
Message-ID: <1991Jun03.151727.9944@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 3 Jun 91 15:17:27 GMT
References: <1991Jun1.021505.4043@trl.oz.au>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Chinet - Chicago Public Access UNIX
Lines: 30

In article <1991Jun1.021505.4043@trl.oz.au> soh@andromeda.trl.OZ.AU (kam hung soh) writes:
>[...] I decided to dump emacs and use vi exclusively.
>It was a horrible experience.  No multiple files / views / buffers, no
>cut-and-paste between windows, no auto auto-indent for the code

You can, of course, run multiple vi's under any windowing system that
allows it, and use the windowing system's cut and paste if you
prefer it to explicit tmp files (I don't, except when one of the
windows is running something that doesn't know how to use files or
the programs in the different windows don't share a common filesystem).
You can also use an external program to auto-indent or whatever else
you need to do.

>1. vi is unbeatable for fixing files.  It is fast and small, the cursor
>whizzes along if I know what I am looking for.

>2. emacs is best for large editing jobs.  It has the appropriate checks
>for scope symbols ( { and }, \begin and \end, etc.) and plenty of
>editing functions.

>Maybe what I need is vimacs ....

I suspect that emacsclient is what you need if you can afford to keep
an emacs running all the time.  I'm surprised that no one has made
a mini-emacs that handled simple editing functions (only), but could
save its state and start up big-brother-GNU without losing your place
if you decide you want to do something more complicated.

Les Mikesell
  les@chinet.chi.il.us