Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!boingo.med.jhu.edu!welch.jhu.edu!glenn From: glenn@welch.jhu.edu (Glenn M. Mason) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc Subject: Re: vi on ms-dos Message-ID: <1991May31.142911.6210@welch.jhu.edu> Date: 31 May 91 14:29:11 GMT References: <4793@cocoa46.UUCP> Reply-To: glenn@welchlab.welch.jhu.edu (Glenn M. Mason) Distribution: comp Organization: Welch Medical Library, Baltimore Lines: 36 In article tarjeij@ulrik.uio.no (Tarjei Jensen) writes: >In article <4793@cocoa46.UUCP> reichert@motcid.UUCP (Chuck KD9JQ) writes: >> Question....what on earth for? There's so many other more desirable [ stuff deleted ] >If you move around on many different systems it is very useful to have a common >editor. VI is an editor that is available on many platforms (Unix, MSDOS, VMS). >Besides it got regular expressions, which means powerful search and replace >operations. This is something few if any of the MSDOS editors can do. Besides >VI supports most of what I want an editor to do. The few things that I would >want in addition is not something I would want to give up VI for (or the >functionality of VI). Jove, a popular emacs editor that has been around for year and years, can do all that. I have yet to run into a platform that could not support jove. I just carry the source around and compile when I encounter a machine with- out jove. I work between Unix and MS-DOS on a variety of hardware platforms and I never have to learn a different editor. If vi supports most of what you want an editor to do, you must not be asking much from your editor. I have yet to see a version of vi with common editing functionality such as easy customization, easy manipulation of multiple buffers/windows, running external programs over text in the editor (such as spell checkers, syntax checkers, etc.), ability to automatically invoke make, spell,lint, etc. and have the editor automatically track errors, filename completion when searching for files that you don't recall the spelling, editing tremendously large files, etc., etc., etc. And if there is such a version (I believe UniPress has a version with several enhancements), it would be a proprietary product that would probably not be available on many platforms (and if it was ... at a substantial cost, for sure). In shorter wording ... VI SUCKS!!! I have been around vi users all my life, and the only reason that any of them refuse to *upgrade* to a decent editor is that they are to lazy to invest the time to learn something new that will make them more productive for the rest of their lives! -former vi user;