Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!limes From: limes@sun.uucp (Greg Limes) Newsgroups: comp.editors Subject: Re: EMACS better than Vi? Message-ID: <52330@sun.uucp> Date: 6 May 88 21:07:56 GMT References: <449@novavax.UUCP> <10000003@snail> <52207@sun.uucp> <1197@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> Reply-To: limes@sun.UUCP (Greg Limes) Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View Lines: 60 In article <1197@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> fowser@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Scott Fowser) writes: >I am interested to know why so many people prefer EMACS to Vi. [donning flame-pruif jammies] Oh Ghod, here come the Holy Editor Wars. People, can we keep them on an information level this time? The man *is* just asking for preferences. >I decided to try it out, but from what I see in the tutorial, it seems >that most of the commands must be preceeded by a control or an escape. >If this is the case, using EMACS sounds quite inconvenient. Yes, many commands in EMACS must be used in conjunction with control, escape, meta (where available), or even meta-x. You get used to it after a while. It helps if you have a keyboard layout that has these keys in easy striking range. >One feature about vi that I like is the ability to keep you fingers in >one place during the whole editing session, whether inserting or >editing. Having to press escape to leave insert mode is inconvenient, but >I define "K" to mean escape from insert mode with > >:map! K ^[ > >In the rare case that you need a K inserted, just put a ^V first. With >this your hands can stay in about the same position for almost the >whole editing session. > >I assume EMACS must have some more advanced features that give it an >advantage over vi in some situations, but the only ones I can see are >windows and that it is free. I would be interested in hearing the >advantages of EMACS for just basic editing, since I am willing to >switch to EMACS if it really is better. Some interesting EMACS features: Bind any command to any key, including another keymap; this is how commands like C-X 4 C-F (find-file-other-window) are created. Run an arbitrary UNIX command on an arbitrary region, placing output in its place or in another window Compile, toss the errors in a *compilation* window (while you edit something else), and step from error to error in the source code Record a series of keystrokes (as you edit), for later playback; these keyboard macros can be named, bound to keys, saved to files, and so on. I use EMACS a lot, for the above features. But then, I read news with RN and use VI for quick editing sessions, so you might say that I have not completely converted to EMACS. If you really like the VI command structure better, but want to use EMACS' additional features, there is a VI mode in Emacs. There are also mail handling tools, news reading tools, and anything else that the denizens of the network have deemed desirable to have. (ps- Not all versions of EMACS are free ...) -- Greg Limes [limes@sun.com] Illigitimi Non Carborundum