Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-ncis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!ucsd!rutgers!gatech!ncar!tank!paideia!milgram
From: milgram@paideia.uchicago.edu (Michele Sara Milgram)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: Okay--I give; why is Emacs so great?
Summary: much better than vi (my only other choice)
Keywords: Gnu Emacs
Message-ID: <1297@tank.uchicago.edu>
Date: 6 Jan 89 06:01:47 GMT
References: <490@blake.acs.washington.edu> <KARL.89Jan5172420@triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Sender: news@tank.uchicago.edu
Reply-To: milgram@paideia.uchicago.edu (Michele Sara Milgram)
Organization: University of Chicago, Dept of Behavioral Sciences
Lines: 25

My only other choices right now are vi and ed, which are no comparison.
If I were on VMS and could use TPU/EVE, then the differences might not
be so great.

1)  Not having to switch between command mode & insert/over-write
mode is wonderful.  It's a pain to be in vi and realize you weren't
in insert mode after all.  It also takes a moment to realize why nothing
happened after you typed ":wq" (didn't get out of insert mode).

2) Auto-save has made life so much easier.  I often dial-up & the cats
often walk over the other phones ....

3) I have a personal preference to RMAIL (part of GNU Emacs) to Mailx.
It's also nice to have the editor alert me when I get mail & to be able
to read it without leaving the editor.

4) Multiple buffers, windows, dired, and other features I might have left
out ....

If the long start-up time bothers you & you actually have to leave GNU
Emacs to do something, stop the job & then foreground it.

		-- Michele Milgram
		   milgram@paideia.uchicago.edu