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Why, oh WHY, do those #?@! nutheads use vi?

viemu.com

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Re: Why, oh WHY, do those #?@! nutheads use vi?

#21

Post by marrone »

I switched to vim for a few reasons:

- I didn't want to get trapped into being comfortable with some editor that I would later not have access to. vim will always be there on any unix box

- there are no showstoppers for vim. Every other editor is great because it has x and y, but the lack of z is annoying. with vim, you can configure it to do almost anything with macros in your .vimrc

- it was slow to get going at first, but now I find using vim you can edit files much faster than using the mouse.

Re: Why, oh WHY, do those #?@! nutheads use vi?

#23

Post by chrisc »

marrone wrote: post #21

I switched to vim for a few reasons: - I didn't want to get trapped into being comfortable with some editor that I would later not have access to. vim will always be there on any unix box - there are no showstoppers for vim. Every other editor is great because it has x and y, but the lack of z is annoying. with vim, you can configure it to do almost anything with macros in your .vimrc - it was slow to get going at fi…

vim7 especially is great with the new tab features and omni-complete

Re: Why, oh WHY, do those #?@! nutheads use vi?

#24

Post by brk »

chrisbroadfoot wrote: post #11
tokipin wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

about the longest 'combos' you make are action-move combos, which is 2 keys, and both the actions and move keys do things by themselves. 'w' for example moves to the beginning of the next word. it's a common travel key. 'dd' deletes the current line and is also commonly used. combine them into 'dw' and you delete everything up to the front of next word so you preface any motion command with an action and you get the…

As I say, I do love the power of it and I'm sure I'd find it somewhat intuitive once I start using it, but it's just a steep learning curve when you can't fall back to input with a mouse. What I mean is: whenever I start learning a new program, I like to be able to use it like a n00b at first (i.e. click around, use native controls), and then learn the more powerful features. A good example of this way of learning is…

Interesting perspective, I'm wondering if you're a "Gen Y'er" (or whatever they're calling that newfangled generation these days ;)

I ask because I started with PCs before the mouse was really commercialized. My first programs were on Commodore PETs and C64 and my PCjr. (Although I did later buy a mouse for the PCjr, I think it cost close to $200 at Babbages, had to save money for a while for that one...)

My long-winded point being that I "grew up" with a CLI. We edited our text files with edlin (and we liked it, dammit!!). Maybe the folks who didn't get started viewing the mouse as a primary interaction device feel more comfortable with vi, and never really missed the mouse interface.

Re: Why, oh WHY, do those #?@! nutheads use vi?

#25

Post by bootload »

jlg wrote: post #22
god wrote: post #20

The only problem I see with vim is that today I write everything online. In textboxes like the one I use right now to type this text. Maybe we need a firefox extension, that blows up a textarea fullscreen and edits it with vim?

Try Mozex.

"... Try Mozex ..."

Wow I'm editing with it now & it works well. Some observations:

- It would be nice if it was just concentrated on editing.

- Certainly a much nicer alternative than the textbox

- miss the spelling syntax highlighting

- It doesn't appear to allow you to edit in the textbox after editing :(

- you need to :wq! & hit enter to save

Can be found at http://mozex.mozdev.org/development.html

Re: Why, oh WHY, do those #?@! nutheads use vi?

#26

Post by ten-seven »

Back when I was coding a lot, there were two editors, vi and one other that came with the Unix variant we had. The other "visual" editor had an annoying tendency to convert multiple spaces to tabs if it was able to. This broke formatting and messed up make files. It sparked a holy war against those who "maintained" code with that editor, calling for those people to use vi and stop breaking things.

Re: Why, oh WHY, do those #?@! nutheads use vi?

#27

Post by kmt »

sabat wrote: post #9

Confession: I use vi because when I was learning how to be a sysadmin (was already a coder) it was recommended -- back then (the '90s) you never knew if emacs was going to be on a system, but vi was practically guaranteed. I still barely know how to use it, though: my own fault. Laziness prevails. Some of the commands I use because I discovered them by accident (shift-C erases the rest of the line and puts you into e…

Does this mean that nowadays you can expect emacs to be installed on every system? From what I've seen, still no. So basic vi skills are still needed. But nowadays, there are many ways to avoid having to edit files with vi. If a system has sftp access you can mount it's file system via sshfs and edit files from your main machine in emacs. This way you could even have the files version controlled on your main machine. There's also tramp mode of course, but sshfs works better.

Re: Why, oh WHY, do those #?@! nutheads use vi?

#28

Post by jng »

I'm the author of the linked article (and of the ViEmu products). Thank you guys for taking some time to read it.

The funny thing is that having vi/vim editing inside Visual Studio is bringing in new converts:

http://www.jpboodhoo.com/blog/GettinJiggyWithVIM.aspx

http://www.jpboodhoo.com/blog/HookedOnVIM.aspx

Of course I'm not impartial, but I would recommend you consider giving it a try if you have access to vi, vim, or emulation for them in your IDE (and some time).

I miss having it in Firefox textareas (such as when typing this comment). I don't like using an external text editor for this - integration is everything to me. I'd happily pay for it, and I'm sure others would, too, although of course it's not a big market. Anyone up to the task?

Re: Why, oh WHY, do those #?@! nutheads use vi?

#30

Post by whacked_new »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #12

This article is excellent. I'm an emacs user, and I know of several articles and books that introduce emacs, but this is the first time that I've ever actually understood how a vi master thinks.

Wow, the '.' is certainly an enviable feature.

http://meghnad.iucaa.ernet.in/intranet/sysadm/help_desk/emac... isn't reassuring either. How does C-x (, C-x ), and C-x e compare?

http://linuxgazette.net/issue47/pedersen.html

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