Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!midway!clout!chinet!les From: les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) Newsgroups: comp.editors Subject: Re: vi and emacs Message-ID: <1991Jun05.142633.24058@chinet.chi.il.us> Date: 5 Jun 91 14:26:33 GMT References: <1991Jun1.021505.4043@trl.oz.au> <1991Jun03.151727.9944@chinet.chi.il.us> Organization: Chinet - Chicago Public Access UNIX Lines: 35 In article enag@ifi.uio.no (Erik Naggum) writes: >| 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 may be missing something, but I usually use "ay} to save a paragraph >in buffer (?) a, switch files*, and do "ap where I want to put it back. >There are at least 26 such buffers available. I also use marks a lot, >to move around faster. It seems that these features are not well known. I guess my usage may not be typical... I tend to work on configuration files etc. on several different machines at once using either the virtual terminals of a '386 unix console running cu in different sessions or a machine running Microsoft Windows with multiple kermit sessions or a combination of the two. The machines in question may or may not have network links, so I tend not to rely on being able to access the reference file in the same session, but if I know of a common directory on the two machines I usually write the piece I want to a tmp file in one session, jump to the other and read it in. The sessions don't even need to be concurrent. The kermits-under-windows setup is new, so I don't have much experience with the screen cut and paste technique, but it looks good so far. >* The only thing I hate about switching files is that vi insists on >writing out the current file and reading in the new file in its place. >Not always what I want. And the thing I hate about it is that it's not at all obvious where you are going when you switch, unless you remember what you have done so far. If you use explicit tmp files you don't need to know much else about the source of data and it will stay around even if you need to interrupt the sessions. Les Mikesell les@chinet.chi.il.us