On 05/05/09 11:58, viktiglemma wrote:
>
>
> Hi,
>
> As a relatively new Vim user I have gathered that vi is an old text editor
> that has spawned many so called clones and Vim is one of them.
>
> As I read the documentation for Vim, I feel that half the text I'm reading
> is about how this command is different from how it is in vi or not and all
> the things that are not possible to do in vi.
>
> Why doesn't Vim leave vi behind? As a new user I do not benefit from all the
> vi-information. The only two reasons I see why vi should continually be
> referenced are
> 1) there are still a large number of people using vi and who will be very
> confused if they are ever forced to work in Vim
> 2) sentimentality and appreciation for vi as the mother editor
>
> The last one, in my opinion, is not a valid reason to include so much
> vi-information in the help files.
>
> What do you think?
Well, I came to Vim without ever having used vi, and I had a vimrc (and
therefore 'nocompatible') from the start.
However, nowadays a significant part of my involvement in Vi consists of
helping newbies solve their problems, and for that it often helps to
detect if the problem might not be that they were in 'compatible' mode
without being aware of it. The {not in Vi} and similar reminders all
over the help are actually pointers to behaviours that might be
different with or without 'compatible'.
Actually there are three, not two, basic "statuses" of the settings
associated with compatibility mode (the 'cpoptions' flags):
- what I regard as "standard Vim behaviour" because it is what I use; it
corresponds to 'nocompatible' mode.
- "Vi-compatible" behaviour, corresponding to 'compatible' mode
- POSIX mode: this is what 'compatible' mode becomes when Vim is started
with $VIM_POSIX environment variable set.
I prefer 'nocompatible' mode, and so, apparently, do you, but the other
two have their reasons for being, as was pointed in the rest of this
thread: 'compatible' mode to make transition from legacy Vi as easy as
possible for the people who still use it, and POSIX mode because even if
POSIX standards are (at least IMHO) not always the best or even
sensible, at least all implementors of Unix-like software have some
knowledge of them, which make them a kind of "portability base" between
program built on different sources but trying to mimic the behaviour of
some common, known utility.
Best regards,
Tony.
--
College football is a game which would be much more interesting if the
faculty played instead of the students, and even more interesting if
the trustees played. There would be a great increase in broken arms,
legs, and necks, and simultaneously an appreciable diminution in the
loss to humanity.
-- H. L. Mencken
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