Heretical Confessions of an Emacs Addict – Joy of the Vim Text Editor « /usr

Occasionally I know I want to delete just 2 words and so use d2w or something, but that's so rare I really notice when it happens.

Your guitar analogy is more applicable not between Emacs and Vim but between something like pico/nano and vim/emacs. It's hard to find a good analogy between Emacs and Vim because they are both awesome editors for many different reasons.

Emacs (due to its LISP origins) is highly configurable, probably the most configurable piece of software you will ever use that has a large mindshare and presence in the community. Vim is configurable, but Vim's intention from the beginning was to be an efficient editor over SSH; it just so happens people are now using it as their primary editor of choice on their desktops.

With Vim you can't just start editing text right away (like Emacs, Word, TextEdit &c...) you have to switch from the Console Mode into Editing Mode (by pressing "i" on most installs). Then if you want to delete a few words you have to switch back to the Console Mode (by pressing "esc" usually) position your cursor, and enter "wq" until the words you wanted deleted are deleted. This has the benefit of separating commands from text editing so there are no "control" keys as you will see with Emacs.

With Emacs you can edit text right away and there are no "modes" to change. Emacs instead has control keys (the two main ones are "C" and "M" - on your keyboard that's "Control" and "Alt" - I've remapped my control key to be the Caps Lock key since it makes my pinky finger less angry). So if while I'm editing I wanted to delete a few words, I would position my cursor then hold down Alt and press "d" until the words I wanted deleted are deleted (in emacs lingo: "M-d"). This has the benefit of not "context" switching into other modes but it means you now have to be very clever with your key combinations so you don't end up playing Twister! on your keyboard for more complicated tasks (that's why some people prefer Vim because it negates that problem with "modes").

Emacs doesn't want to be an MP3 player - Emacs wants to be whatever the person using it wants it to be. To me that's what wins me over to Emacs; if I need my editor to do something that it doesn't do stock, I have the full power to add/change/remove whatever it is I want it to do. Additionally there's an enormous community of people with far more knowledge and experience in doing that to tap into, plus, if you want it do something it's most likely someone already has done (and done it better).

Vim also doesn't want to be an MP3 player - matter of fact, you would get stoned by the Vim community for saying that, those guys are all about efficiency. I love Vim because of its efficiency - I actually really hate Emacs over SSH (to all those saying "use TRAMP!" I have, and it's not nearly as cool as using Vim over SSH). My editor of choice when working directly on a server editing code is Vim, it's fast, concise, and very powerful.

There is no editor war today - there's the never ending jihad between annoying emacs users and vim users that think their editor of choice is better than the other (I think those people are stupid, because BOTH EDITORS ARE AMAZING and EVERYONE HAS A DIFFERENT PREFERENCE). Technical people use editors that empower them to write software; people who don't want to think about text editing are still keyboard pecking when writing their emails.

- both require a large investment to achieve mastery.

You don't have to achieve mastery in order to be productive in Emacs and Vim!!! Use Emacs for a solid month and you will be productive in it (like wise for Vim).

- both deliver excellent return on that investment. Proficient use "looks like magic."

This is true (of more things than just Emacs and Vim).

- both include (seriously underrated) tutorial software to get new users up and running.

This is also true (of more software than just Emacs and Vim).

- both are still described as "hard to learn" by people who don't use them.

Because most people have commitment issues and would prefer their IDE's (just like people who don't know how to use the terminal all of the Unix tools (sed/awk/grep/&c... complain it's "hard to learn").

- both have more popular competitors that are less capable but easier to pick up and use without thinking about it (various IDEs for Emacs, pico/nano for vim).

There are no competitors to Emacs and Vim that I'm aware of (the only one to Emacs I can think of and it still isn't a competitor is Yii); IDE's aren't even in the same camp - IDE's are more project management than editor.

[edit] I take this back, there's one piece of software I remember vaguely that is trying to be an IDE with Emacs/Vim style editing, I'm not sure if it provides the type of editing functionality Emacs and Vim do though.

I don't know what your problem is here, but you'd do better stating it outright. As it is, you're just embarrassing yourself. If age and community are the only similarities between Vim and and Emacs, the one of them is not a Unix text editor.

You're actually the one embarrassing yourself, not because of your lack of knowledge but because of your response! Nyellin gave a perfectly good comment to your flawed comment and you reacted emotionally instead of rationally.

Your reasons above for why they are similar are very much moot points - most of those points can be said for many things other than text editors. See my comment for why they ARE DIFFERENT; Nyellin could have gone into more depth as to why they are different, but ultimately he's kind of right. They have both been around forever, they both have HUGE, vibrant, and passionate communities, and they both edit text.

Please note, we are talking about "text editing" and not the gobldegook that is IDE "project management" (IDE's aren't proper text editors, they are stunted text editors).