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From: folta@tove.umd.edu (Wayne Folta)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.sys.next,comp.sys.mac,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: replacing the desktop metaphor (Wives)
Keywords: desktop metaphor, graphical interfaces, computing environments
Message-ID: <15191@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 29 Dec 88 23:04:11 GMT
References: <22624@pbhya.PacBell.COM>
Sender: nobody@mimsy.UUCP
Reply-To: folta@tove.umd.edu.UUCP (Wayne Folta)
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science,gs
Lines: 30


That is the beauty of vi: you can use vi on dozens of different machines
and hundreds of different terminals without changing one finger movement
(with the exception of the escape key and the vertical bar, which find
very odd positions on some keyboards).  But this same type of "knowledge
transfer" benefits Mac users not across hardware boundaries but software
boundaries.  Once I know CMD-X cuts something, it works in every application,
from text to graphics, pictures to compilers.

And vi is NOT a word processor by any means.  It is TOTALLY line-oriented,
and has no concept at all of, say, wordwrap.  I'm a power vi user, myself
(e.g. I've used the @ macro operator since before it was documented), but
it is painful to do word processing on.  Adding nroff doesn't help.  Using
the vi/nroff combination to do word processing is like using a keypunch/batch
combination to program, it involves multiple steps and gives no immediate
feedback.  Not to mention that much of vi's power is oriented towards programs
(the %, for example), and it has a hard time even deleting a range of lines
(unless you want to count lines and use 'dd', you must leave a mark, navigate
to your intended end of deletion, then delete to the mark--slower than a
mouse).

Lastly, you do not have to take your hands off of the keyboard to do things
in Mac word processors.  Most good ones, such as MS Word, have keyboard
equivalents for anything you can do from the Mouse.  You use the mouse because
you feel like it, or because you need the help finding your command.  You
use the keyboard when you get around to memorizing the things... The best
of both worlds, which vi does not offer.


Wayne Folta          (folta@tove.umd.edu  128.8.128.42)