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From: hoffman@hdsvx1.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: edt or vi?
Message-ID: <963@hdsvx1.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Dec-86 08:13:12 EST
Article-I.D.: hdsvx1.963
Posted: Wed Dec 10 08:13:12 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 14-Dec-86 03:27:58 EST
References: <241@tellab5.UUCP>
Reply-To: hoffman@hdsvx1.UUCP (Richard hoffman)
Organization: Schlumberger HDS, Houston
Lines: 51

In article <241@tellab5.UUCP> etan@tellab3.UUCP (Nate Stelton) writes:

>I am a UNIX/vi user who was recently told about EDT (under VMS), and I would
>like to solicit some comments.  What I'm wondering is:

>1.  Is EDT a superior text editor to vi?

	Ah, another round of UNIX vs. VMS!  I have been asking this question
	of users of both systems for a long time, and have found that users
	who prefer UNIX generally prefer vi, while those who prefer VMS
	always prefer EDT.  Both can be very powerful if you know how to
	use their macro facilities.  Both are relatively easy for a novice
	to use (although I think that here EDT has a real edge, since there
	are no commands to be learnt, and since there is a comprehensive
	help facility).  EDT does not have vi's ability to escape the shell,
	or to filter blocks of text through shell commands (though this is
	fairly easy to come by if you are using the TPU version of EDT).
	And the search and substitution facilities of EDT are truly limited
	(regular patterns? Ha! EDT doesn't even give you simple wild-card
	searches.  Even IBM editors do that!).  But the command structure
	in EDT is much simpler, and I think the *philosophy* is more
	straightforward.  For example, there is no J command in EDT, because
	all you need to do to join two lines together is to delete the \n
	at the end of the first line.  There are individual buffers
	for restoring the last line, word, character and paste block deleted,
	which I find much more helpful than the general purpose P command.
	And, best of all, ordinary letters are not used for commands!  If
	you are in "keypad" mode, and type a character, it appears on the
	screen.  No C or R or S commands are necessary, because you are
	always in insert mode:  just move to the text you want to change,
	delete the old text and type in the new.  What could be easier?
	You should try it for a while, and judge for yourself.

>2.  Is there a version of EDT that can run under UNIX 4.2(or3) BSD?

	Not to my knowledge.  Of course, EDT (like everything else)
	can be simulated with EMACS, which does run under BSD.  But
	if you have EMACS, there are more exciting things you can do.

>3.  Is VMS a better environment for electronic publishing than UNIX? (I.e.,
>fuller support, more powerful tools).

	Probably not.  I've used both for this purpose, and can't see any
	difference except in EDT vs. vi.  The filter/pipeline concept might
	give UNIX a slight edge if you really know what you're doing; the
	friendliness of VMS might win back that slight edge if you don't.
-- 
 Richard Hoffman | "They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care,
 Schlumberger WS | They pursued it with forks and hope;
 hdsvx1!hoffman  | They threatened its life with a railway share,
 713-928-4750    | They charmed it with smiles and soap."         (L. CARROLL)