Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!udel!udccvax1!fowser
From: fowser@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Scott Fowser)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: EMACS better than Vi?
Message-ID: <1197@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU>
Date: 6 May 88 14:36:10 GMT
References: <449@novavax.UUCP> <10000003@snail> <52207@sun.uucp>
Reply-To: fowser@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Scott Fowser)
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 21

I am interested to know why so many people prefer EMACS to Vi.  I
decided to try it out, but from what I see in the tutorial, it seems
that most of the commands must be preceeded by a control or an escape.
If this is the case, using EMACS sounds quite inconvenient.

One feature about vi that I like is the ability to keep you fingers in
one place during the whole editing session, whether inserting or
editing.  Having to press escape to leave insert mode is inconvenient, but
I define "K" to mean escape from insert mode with

:map! K ^[

In the rare case that you need a K inserted, just put a ^V first.  With
this your hands can stay in about the same position for almost the
whole editing session.

I assume EMACS must have some more advanced features that give it an
advantage over vi in some situations, but the only ones I can see are
windows and that it is free.  I would be interested in hearing the
advantages of EMACS for just basic editing, since I am willing to
switch to EMACS if it really is better.