Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:29370 comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d:3202 Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!megatek!eta!hollen From: hollen@eta.megatek.uucp (Dion Hollenbeck) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: vi editor Message-ID: <555@megatek.UUCP> Date: 26 May 89 15:07:38 GMT References: <24890@beta.lanl.gov> Sender: news@megatek.UUCP Distribution: usa Lines: 66 From article <24890@beta.lanl.gov>, by pt@beta.lanl.gov (Paul A. Thiessen): > In article <554@megatek.UUCP> hollen@eta.megatek.uucp (Dion Hollenbeck) writes: >>From article <24788@beta.lanl.gov>, by pt@beta.lanl.gov (Paul A. Thiessen): >>> I know it has been mentioned before, but can someone please tell me where to >>> get a good VI editor for the PC? >> ^^^^ >> >>Good editor and VI in the same breath are oxymoronic. Why not take the >>time to learn a REAL editor on which is made for the PC? They are so >>much better than VI, that you will be surprised how you lived with >>VI for so long. > > Actually, the reason I want it is beacuse I like to have a *small* editor > that is memory resident and comes up quickly on my 4.77 MHz PC. I don't want > to wait for WordPerfect to load up every time I want to do a quick edit on > some little file. And I use VI at work, so I thought something similar would > be convenient. > I appreciate your interest in my word processing welfare, but please > remember that sometimes there may be valid logic behind a statement or request > that may not be immediately obvious to *you*. And though no offense was taken, > your reply seems to imply that I am unaware of the existence of "good" word > processors or the capability of the PC I've owned for 5 years. I like to think > I'm a bit more "with-it" than that! > > - Paul Sorry if I sounded a bit caustic, but I am continually needing to defend myself in a UNIX environment for using a full-featured editor (Emacs) and I automatically treat anyone espousing VI and "the enemy". I should not have lumped you in that category without more information. I can give two suggestions for fast and small editors, both of which I use(d) on my PC at home. My first editor was Personal Editor for the IBM version 1.0. I believe that this is available at version 2.0. It has windows, unlimited file size and customizable key set-ups. Since then, I have discovered Multi-Edit (ME) which blows the doors off any editor I have ever seen (I am not talking about word processors or publishing packages, but programming editors which may or may not have some documentation capabilities). It is about 40k, has multiwindowing, mouse or function-key driven menues, configurable key bindings and the most outrageously good and complete macro language you could ever want. It is cheap and has excellent support from the manufacturer. Unfortunately, I have it at home, not here at work, so I cannot tell you who makes it. If you are interested in pursuing it, I can look up the information and mail it to you. One of the 'icing on the cake' features is language-specific indentation, commenting and templates. A template is a macro that automatically constructs a logic template for you. Type "i" and then press ALT-I and magically, you have an 'if-then-else' construct on the screen with your cursor inside the first parentheses. Since these are macros, you can change them to suit your individual needs. These templates are language specific. You can go in a 'file-extension' menu and configure what file extensions get what language flavor and even tell it what the compile command for that language. Oh, BTW, you can compile from within the editor and it will put you in the edited file at the first error and allow you to find each of the successive errors with a single key-combination. You can also escape to DOS, format disks, do directory stuff and even do some elementary word-processing/formatting and printing from it. Dion Hollenbeck (619) 455-5590 x2814 Megatek Corporation, 9645 Scranton Road, San Diego, CA 92121 seismo!s3sun!megatek!hollen ames!scubed/