Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!agate!ig!uwmcsd1!nic.MR.NET!umn-cs!ns!ddb From: ddb@ns.ns.com (David Dyer-Bennet) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: emacs vs vi Summary: Here it is... Message-ID: <422@ns.ns.com> Date: 12 Jul 88 21:39:44 GMT References: <16435@brl-adm.ARPA> Organization: Network Systems Corp. Mpls MN Lines: 28 In article <16435@brl-adm.ARPA>, roberts@cmr.icst.nbs.gov (John Roberts) writes: > I believe it is possible to create a <500 word summary which will allow a > complete novice to use vi at a rudimentary level sufficient to create or > arbitrarily modify any text file (append, insert, delete, save, etc.) I have > not heard of any such claim made for emacs. Try this, composed on the spot: To invoke editor on a file: emacsTo save the file: ^X^S To exit without saving: ^X^C Cursor keys move you around. Typing inserts the characters typed. Delete deletes the character to the left of the cursor. To delete from current position to end of line: ^K To go to beginning of line: ^A To end of line: ^E Backspace invokes help. 63 words, could be much less if I weren't verbose about the descriptions. For some levels of novices I should explain what "^K" means, maybe another 10 words. Of course, there are many other things I could explain about emacs or vi. This set of commands goes back to the minimal VI command set posted a while back, and my minimal emacs set response. Note that I didn't have to expend any words explaining the different modes and how to get between them.-- -- David Dyer-Bennet ...!{rutgers!dayton | amdahl!ems | uunet!rosevax}!umn-cs!ns!ddb ddb@viper.Lynx.MN.Org, ...{amdahl,hpda}!bungia!viper!ddb Fidonet 1:282/341.0, (612) 721-8967 hst/2400/1200/300