[plug]

[Jason Nicholls]

G'day,

On Sun, Oct 01, 2000 at 12:47:23AM +0800, Leon Brooks wrote:
> Vi is less ambitious than EMACS, and works exceptionally well over a really
> slow link, but can be extremely confusing for a newbie, since many commands
> are ordinary letters (no control keys or anything) and there are a whole
> flock of modes to know about.

The lack of control key CTRL/ALT combinations is much faster in the long run
(vi has different modes of operation, when *not* in insert/replace mode the
normal characters become control keys). Why? Because you don't have to worry
about reaching out to the keyboard extremities (alt, ctrl, etc...) plus most 
vi commands are single characters, so no key combinations either.

[and before people begin to shout, there are CTRL/ALT combinations in vi 
 but it's usually possible to avoid (and i've excluded the use of
 bindings etc...)]

I'm not trying to say "use vi over emacs" because in all honesty I've never
used emacs ;) I say get proficient in vi OR emacs or equivalently powered
editor (doesn't matter to me) because they are both much more productive 
than a regular "no frills" text editor.


Later,

Jason Nicholls
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Jason Nicholls    icq: 11745841    email: <jason at mindsocket.com.au>
Proprietor                        mobile: 0417 410 811
Mind Socket [web services]          http://www.mindsocket.com.au/
--------------------------------------------------------------------