On Wed, Sep 30, 1998 at 04:47:47PM -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> (Strangled scream) Vi has got to be one of the worst editors I have
> ever seen! DO NOT, repeate, DO NOT use VI.
Learn vi, repeat, learn vi.
Why?
Because it (and its line-oriented alter-ago, ex) is/are the only editor
that you can count on to be shipped with every Unix/Linux distribution
you are likely to encounter. When you boot the machine off CD, (or
when you boot it in single-user mode) that is all you're going to have
to work with, and if you can't use it, you're going to be stuck. You
cannot survive in the Unix/Linux world if you do not know vi/ex; you
certainly cannot perform rudimentary system administration tasks
without it.
(BTW, ten years ago, I gave the same advice about 'ed'. Be glad
that you don't have to learn *that*.)
Personally, I find vi far superior to pico, which lacks the power,
regular-expression handling, macro programming and other features
that I really enjoy about vi. Vi also has a remarkably consistent
command structure which allows you to easily construct complex
commands from simpler components, once you grasp the scheme --
which doesn't take that long.
However, if you really *must* have a chatty editor, go get "nvi", which
is the GNU version of vi, and set all the options that cause it to
prattle endlessly about what it's doing.
> It's author said that it would only last a few months, till someone
> else came up with something better.
Interesting. I've never heard Bill say that. Is this a quote
that I can find in print somewhere?
> Pico is small, fast, lousy, but serviceable. It is A LOT better than
> VI, and can be had with the PINE mail handler.
Pine is dead, as is elm. Mutt has subsumed and supplanted both.
---Rsk
Rich Kulawiec
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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