Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!njin!princeton!mccc!jonlab!jon From: jon@jonlab.UUCP (Jon H. LaBadie) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: vi vs emacs in a student environment Summary: Is available does not mean will be there Message-ID: <449@jonlab.UUCP> Date: 4 Jul 88 08:21:22 GMT References: <399@cantuar.UUCP> <11418@steinmetz.ge.com> <6056@megaron.arizona.edu> <1832@stpstn.UUCP> Organization: 4455 Province Line Rd., Princeton, NJ 08540 Lines: 48 In article <1832@stpstn.UUCP>, aad@stpstn.UUCP (Anthony A. Datri) writes: > The original EMACS runs on most or all of the pdp-10 os's. Gosling/Unipress > emacs runs on: > [ List and many more emacs variations deleted ] > > Sure, the better implementions of emacs have ridiculous functionality, but > it's all dynamic -- you don't load it if you don't want it. > The original poster solicited comments on which editor was most appropriate in an education environment, i.e. which would best serve the students need and prepare them for post-academia. I would come down strongly on the vi side of this polling. Just because emacs IS AVAILABLE for system X does not mean that on implementation Y of system X it will be there. Vi will be! Yeah, I know about older UNIX versions etc. Don't burn me on this point. As an employer, if I see that an employee (that's what the students will be trying to become) lists UNIX experience on their resume, I expect that employee to be able to work with the standard tools. If they can be more productive by using non-standard tools, wonderful. But the choice of supplying/not supplying that tool is ultimately mine. But the student/prospective employee should be prepared to work in whichever environment I supply. Vi experience does that for the student. In the converse situation (UNIX experience claimed, company system is UNIX-like but supplies emacs and not vi) the student's resume is accurate and informative. I know a ramp-up period will be needed for both system and editor familiarization. To my mind, if one claims to be able to work in the UNIX area, they should be able to use the basic, supplied tools. That is true whether you are talking about editors or shells or ???. You may prefer emacs and csh, but you better know vi and sh. The latter properly prepares students for their post-collegiate days. The same argument is valid for edlin in the MS_DOS world (did I really say that word ;-)?). You may not prefer edlin, but you should know how to use it. Jon LaBadie, Education Staff Manager, AUXCO / CBIS {att, ulysses, princeton}!jonlab!jon Usual employer disclaimers: why do you think I am writing this at 4:20 AM?