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From: nmm@apss.ab.ca (Neil McCulloch)
Newsgroups: comp.misc,comp.editors
Subject: Re: UNIX needs a real text editor
Summary: what don't you like about vi?
Message-ID: <1028@apss.apss.ab.ca>
Date: 12 Mar 89 04:22:42 GMT
References: <222@imspw6.UUCP> <252@torch.UUCP>
Organization: Alberta Public Safety Services
Lines: 33

In article <252@torch.UUCP>, richard@torch.UUCP (Richard Nuttall) writes:
> ABSOLUTELY!!!!
> I HATE vi.
> 
> I have only had to use vi in the last couple of months, before that
> I have used decent custmisable editors (WYSIWYG) such as


At the risk of contributing to editor wars...

Look, vi might not do all you want it to do, and YOU might find it hard
to use. However, you can teach a complete neophyte how to use vi in
about 5 minutes, and it is powerful and customisable enough to meet
your average user's needs.

There are lots of editors out there, each one the best for a particular
situation. It is up to the user to choose the tool required to do the
job they want to do. This is part of the UNIX philosophy. Hence UNIX
gives us: sed, ed, ex, vi as standard. To which you can add you're
favourite emacs clone or other editor.

Incidentally, the same goes for other UNIX tools: nroff, troff and so on.
Each one does a particular job at a certain level of complexity. People
who criticise UNIX for having this hierachal approach to tool and
application programs simply miss the point. And finally, there are
top of the line applications programs becoming available to meet the
needs of users with very specific needs and dare I say it, predilections.

Cheers,

neil

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