Re: vim is too smart for its own good
On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 14:49:32 -0500, Tim Chase [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
There's always ed...
-more ubiquitous in its presence
-consistent in its behavior
-powerful
-tools like diff interoperate with it
-it can be used on a slow TTY
-can be used on with a one-line display
-smaller executable size
-easier to remember: *ed*itor, not *vi*sual editor
-no time or machine cycles wasted on screen refreshes
-historically significant
so many other bountiful blessings to using ed. ;)
Granted, I haven't come across an ed users mailing list, let
alone one as helpful as this list.
Hmmm...I wonder how hard it would be to add syntax highlighting
to ed... ;)
The wonderful thing about ed is that it encourages you to learn about
the power of regular expressions really, _really_ quickly, mainly
because there's no other way to make changes within a line.
In the late 1980s I used the Georgia Tech screen editor, which was a
sort of visual ed. You entered commands just like ed, but the top
of the screen was used to display twenty or so lines of your buffer
around the area you were editing. Each displayed line had a capital
letter associated with it and you could use this letter as a line
address instead of the line's number. An example of its display taken
from the manual:
A|
B|#include stdio.h
C|
D *|register int i;
E|
. - |for (i = 1; i = 12; i++)
G|putc ('\n', stderr);
$|
cmd |_
11:39 myfile ...
You can still get it, if you want to remember the good old days:
http://hpux.cs.utah.edu/hppd/hpux/Editors/se-1.3/
--
Matthew Winn
vim is too smart for its own good
Hi, I'd like to use a plain text editor. I don't want any surprises. I don't want it to think it understands language syntax. I don't want it to colorize things. I don't want it to do anything at all for me, unless I explicitly say it is okay for it to do so. In short, I want vi. Except Linux distributions now alias vi to vim and all its wondrous wizardry. ``set compatible'' is insufficient. I still get automated commenting when the silly thing has decided that I must be editing a C file. Leave me alone, please. I want it all turned off. I have been unable to find a simple way to do that. Or even any way to do that, because I have not found any way at all to turn off the ``you must want this line prefixed with a double slash'' feature. Help! Suggestions, please? Thank you! - Bruce
Re: vim is too smart for its own good
On Aug 31, 2006, at 3:19 PM, Bruce Korb wrote: Hi, I'd like to use a plain text editor. I don't want any surprises. I don't want it to think it understands language syntax. I don't want it to colorize things. I don't want it to do anything at all for me, unless I explicitly say it is okay for it to do so. In short, I want vi. Except Linux distributions now alias vi to vim and all its wondrous wizardry. ``set compatible'' is insufficient. I still get automated commenting when the silly thing has decided that I must be editing a C file. Leave me alone, please. I want it all turned off. I have been unable to find a simple way to do that. Or even any way to do that, because I have not found any way at all to turn off the ``you must want this line prefixed with a double slash'' feature. Help! Suggestions, please? Thank you! - Bruce you might try nvi? http://www.bostic.com/vi/ Mike
Re: vim is too smart for its own good
alone, please. I want it all turned off. I have been unable to find a simple way to do that. Or even any way to do that, because I have not found any way at all to turn off the ``you must want this line prefixed with a double slash'' feature. Help! Suggestions, please? Thank you! - Bruce And 'vim -u NONE' doesn't work for you? -- Web/Blog/Gallery: http://floatingsun.net/blog
Re: vim is too smart for its own good
Michael Hernandez wrote: you might try nvi? http://www.bostic.com/vi/ Mike $ type nvi ksh: type: nvi: not found Hi Mike, If distributions were to normally install it, that would be fine. Installing my own vi is way over the top for what my needs ought to require. Surely getting vim to act like a plain text editor cannot be _that_ hard!!! Thanks - Bruce
Re: vim is too smart for its own good
Bruce Korb wrote: Hi, I'd like to use a plain text editor. I don't want any surprises. I don't want it to think it understands language syntax. I don't want it to colorize things. I don't want it to do anything at all for me, unless I explicitly say it is okay for it to do so. In short, I want vi. Except Linux distributions now alias vi to vim and all its wondrous wizardry. ``set compatible'' is insufficient. I still get automated commenting when the silly thing has decided that I must be editing a C file. Leave me alone, please. I want it all turned off. I have been unable to find a simple way to do that. Or even any way to do that, because I have not found any way at all to turn off the ``you must want this line prefixed with a double slash'' feature. Help! Suggestions, please? Thank you! - Bruce alias vi='vim -u NONE' Best regards, Tony.
Re: vim is too smart for its own good
Diwaker Gupta wrote: And 'vim -u NONE' doesn't work for you? alias vi='vim -u NONE' OK. That works. Can't that be done with something a little more obvious in ~/.vimrc ?? So, I'll burn that in my brain and not be bothered anymore. Thank you all. Bruce
Re: vim is too smart for its own good
If distributions were to normally install it, that would be fine. Installing my own vi is way over the top for what my needs ought to require. Surely getting vim to act like a plain text editor cannot be _that_ hard!!! [tongue in cheek] There's always ed... -more ubiquitous in its presence -consistent in its behavior -powerful -tools like diff interoperate with it -it can be used on a slow TTY -can be used on with a one-line display -smaller executable size -easier to remember: *ed*itor, not *vi*sual editor -no time or machine cycles wasted on screen refreshes -historically significant so many other bountiful blessings to using ed. ;) Granted, I haven't come across an ed users mailing list, let alone one as helpful as this list. Hmmm...I wonder how hard it would be to add syntax highlighting to ed... ;) -tim
Re[2]: vim is too smart for its own good
On Thu, 31 Aug 2006, Tim Chase apparently wrote: There's always ed... -more ubiquitous in its presence -consistent in its behavior -powerful -tools like diff interoperate with it -it can be used on a slow TTY -can be used on with a one-line display -smaller executable size -easier to remember: *ed*itor, not *vi*sual editor -no time or machine cycles wasted on screen refreshes -historically significant so many other bountiful blessings to using ed. ;) For those missing the reference: http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed.msg.html Cheers, Alan Isaac
Re: vim is too smart for its own good
On 2006-08-31, Bruce Korb [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Diwaker Gupta wrote: And 'vim -u NONE' doesn't work for you? alias vi='vim -u NONE' OK. That works. Can't that be done with something a little more obvious in ~/.vimrc ?? So, I'll burn that in my brain and not be bothered anymore. Thank you all. Bruce I was just looking through :help starting.txt and it seems to me that putting set all set compatible set noloadplugins filetype off at the very start of your ~/.vimrc or ~/.exrc ought to give you as basic a vi as you can get from vim, even if a system vimrc has already been sourced. I'm not sure about the proper ordering of those first two, or if it makes a difference. HTH, Gary -- Gary Johnson | Agilent Technologies [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Wireless Division | Spokane, Washington, USA
