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From: kgallagh@digi.lonestar.org (Kevin Gallagher)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: Shutdown: EMACS vs. vi
Message-ID: <1991Jun3.135849.2521@digi.lonestar.org>
Date: 3 Jun 91 13:58:49 GMT
References: <1991Jun2.075649.3512@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Organization: DSC Communications Corp, Plano, TX
Lines: 41

In article <1991Jun2.075649.3512@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> ury@cosmos.huji.ac.il (ury segal) writes:
>Let's stop the war. I steel don't need the great features of EMACS, and
>if your'e writing books of papers - EMACS is much better. I'm a 
>programmer. 

Programmers come in all shapes and sizes with all kinds of preferences
concerning the editors they use.  What is a good editor for one
programmer is a lousy editor for the next programmer.  If the learning
curve is large and you are not willing to put up with a large learning
curve, then a highly flexible and customizable editor like GNU Emacs
is not for you (unless you can talk someone else into setting it up to
behave the way you want it to behave).

Here at DSC we have hundreds of programmers.  The editors they prefer
and the ways they use them vary considerably.  

On one extreme, I know one programmer who, regardless of which editor
he happens to be using, ONLY uses the arrow keys to move through a
file.  I once showed him the scroll forward command.  He used it while
I watched (to humor me I guess).  But later on I noticed he was back
using the arrow keys exclusively.  His favorite way to delete text is
with repeated use of the delete key, often deleting dozens of lines
this way.  Most programmers find it painful to watch him work.

On the other extreme we have a programmer who seems to be spending
most of his time customizing the editor with lots of neat functions.
Many often wonder how he gets time in to do the work for which he gets
paid. 

By far, however, most programmers want an editor that has some useful
programming and editing aids built it, but they want someone ELSE to
set it up and show them how it works.  And once they get used to ONE
editor they don't want to have to switch to another editor.  And when
they are forced to switch, they want someone to make the new editor
behave like the old editor as much as possible.

-- 
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Kevin Gallagher        kgallagh@digi.lonestar.org OR ...!uunet!digi!kgallagh
DSC Communications Corporation   Addr: MS 152, 1000 Coit Rd, Plano, TX 75075
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