Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbatt!cwruecmp!hal!ncoast!allbery From: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery) Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Vi vs. Emacs -- the religious wars start again... Message-ID: <1586@ncoast.UUCP> Date: Mon, 20-Oct-86 20:53:48 EDT Article-I.D.: ncoast.1586 Posted: Mon Oct 20 20:53:48 1986 Date-Received: Wed, 22-Oct-86 03:30:06 EDT References: <4327@brl-smoke.ARPA> <357@maynard.UUCP> <113@twg-ap.UUCP> <847@cuuxb.UUCP> Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery) Followup-To: net.unix-wizards Organization: North Coast Computer Resources, Cleveland Public Access UNIX, Cleveland, OH Lines: 69 Quoted from <847@cuuxb.UUCP> ["Re: VI(1) vs. the world"], by mwm@cuuxb.UUCP (Marc W. Mengel)... +--------------- | In article <113@twg-ap.UUCP> narayan@twg-ap.UUCP (Narayan Mohanram) writes: | >> - multiple buffers and windows +--------------- These were actually in vi at one point. Problem was, the author was on a PDP-11 and he couldn't fit any other features in with windows. +--------------- | >> - query replace +--------------- :g/foo/s//bar/gc leaves a lot to be desired. It's difficult to type, and you can only replace or not replace. (JOVE: yes, no, stop, recursive edit, pro- ceed. Recursive edit drops you back into the editor; C-X C-C puts you back into search mode. VERY useful if you replace something you didn't mean to!) +--------------- | >> - keyboard macros +--------------- :map :map! :ab However, ^V^V^V^[ is a bit disgusting. On the other hand, while the Emacs technique of "defining-by-doing" is easy to pick up, I am often forced to start an emacs on a junk file, define a macro, save it, then use it later. +--------------- | >> - online help (":!man vi" doesn't count) +--------------- I understand GNU Emacs has this. I've seen some others; few have on-line help that can really be called "help" (either hard to get it on the screen or as hard to understand as the UNIX Programmer's Manual). +--------------- | And one volley for the other side: I really like to be able to say "15j" to | go down 15 lines, and "40a -" to be able to make an 80 column dashed line. | Does Emacs, (or any other editor, for that matter) provide this repeat n times | facility? (this is not a rhetorical question, I don't know...) +--------------- That trick is impossible in modeless editors without a "temporary macro" feature that can be repeated; TECO comes to mind... +--------------- | P.S. A Challenge to those Other Editor users, I can write a vi macro to | reverse the words on a line... can you? +--------------- A macro to do that would be ugly. Or worse, impossible to understand because of "little tricks". In Emacs, you write a function to do that kind of thing. On the other hand, Lisp never impressed me that much... It should be obvious by now that I don't consider either editor to be THE PERFECT EDITOR. And there are times when modal editors are more useful and times when modeless editors are more useful. ++Brandon -- ---------------- /--/ Brandon S. Allbery UUCP: decvax!cwruecmp! / / /|\/ Tridelta Industries, Inc. ncoast!tdi2!brandon ---- -------- /-++ 7350 Corporate Blvd. PHONE: +1 216 974 9210 / / /---, ---- Mentor, Ohio 44060 SYSOP: UNaXcess/ncoast / / / / / / -- HOME -- (216) 781-6201 24 hrs. / / / / / / 6615 Center St. Apt. A1-105 ARPA: ncoast!allbery% ---- -----~ ---- Mentor, Ohio 44060-4101 case.CSNET@relay.cs.net An Open Letter To Tim Maroney: If you don't want dogma, stop feeding it to us!