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From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: e - the friendly interface to vi. version 1.1
Message-ID: <6616@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 30-Oct-87 00:59:52 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.6616
Posted: Fri Oct 30 00:59:52 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 4-Nov-87 05:45:23 EST
References: <4912@ncoast.UUCP> <937@woton.UUCP> <1085@ur-valhalla.UUCP>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 27

In article <1085@ur-valhalla.UUCP> badri@ur-valhalla.UUCP (Badri Lokanathan) writes:
>but can anybody tell me why ^X^C
>is more clear/intuitive/understandable than :quit in vi?)

First of all, I don't think anybody claimed it was.
However, here is where that combination came from:
There are two EMACS command prefix characters in most implementations:
ESC and ^X.  Presumably "X" has the mnemonic meaning "eXtension", since
it extends the number of available control characters (remember, EMACS
is modeless, so all commands require special characters or else entry
by name after invoking a generic enter-command command).  Every EMACS
user quickly learns what the two prefix characters are.  There is even
some mnemonic logic to their typical default command bindings, since
ESC is mostly used for global operations (such as word or paragraph
oriented operations) and ^X is mostly used for file-oriented operations.
^C is commonly used in the DEC world to terminate processes, and many
BSD users have adopted it as a SIGINT-generating key rather than the
original UNIX DEL.  Therefore, it isn't hard to remember ^X ^C to
terminate EMACS.  By the way, you can usually rearrange the bindings of
control keys/sequences to EMACS editing commands to suit your personal
preferences.

I use many editors, including all the ones commonly mentioned in these
religious discussions, and I think they all have problems.  My two
favorites are TECO (the most programmable) and Rob Pike's "sam" (the
best user interface).  But "vi", EMACS, and even "ed" are also useful;
let's not pretend otherwise.