vi vs emacs -- for writers

[Wilson Heydt]

In article <420 at ns.ns.com>, ddb at ns.ns.com (David Dyer-Bennet) writes:
>    I've had to guide several non-computer users (writers) into editors.
> They seem to pick up Emacs several orders of magnitude faster than vi. 
> Vi is downright user-hostile (that's the step BEYOND "user-surly" :-).
> Your mileage may vary.

1. My wife is a writer. (not a lot published, but she's sold 5 short
   stories in the last year.)

2. She uses--and LIKES--vi and nroff.

3. She is a demon typist--probably somewhere above 100 words/min.

4. She hates mice and an excess of control keys.

General comment--she refused to have anything to do with computers
("All numbers are the same."), until exposed to UNIX with text editors.

The general problem of memorizing commands boils down to being no
functional difference between "dir" and "ls" if you're not familiar
with either.  Same really goes for editors, but refer to her being a
very fast touch typist.  There is no standard place to put 'ctrl-' on
a keyboard.  The one I'm using at the moment has ctrl outside the
shift-lock (which I almost never use) and escape as shift-PF6.  It's
easier to use ctrl-[.

Net result--not only is she happy with vi, but I won't try to make
here change--even if I find an editor I prefer (which I haven't--so
far.).

      --Hal

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  Hal Heydt                             |    "Hafnium plus Holmium is
  Analyst, Pacific*Bell                 |     one-point-five, I think."
  415-645-7708                          |       --Dr. Jane Robinson
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