vi vs emacs in a student environment

[Darin Johnson]

> In article <1633 at hoqax.UUCP> bicker at hoqax.UUCP (The Resource, Poet of Quality) writes:
>>I learned vi first (well actually, I learned TECO first, but that's
>>another story) and then learned emacs.

Actually, I learned neither first (UCSD-Pascal editor and EDT were the major
ones).  Although I became ingrained thoroughly with vi (never actually tried
emacs for more than a few minutes), as soon as I ended up in the real world,
I was stuck with EDT (for VMS).  Of course, it would be nice if everyone ran
UNIX (or even if almost everyone ran UNIX).  Most editors are very disimilar to
vi, and I never did learn EDT very well.  Eventually TPU (extensible editor
for VMS) came out and I fell in love with it.  Later I started managing some
UNIX systems part-time.  Even though I finally got Gnu Emacs on VMS and
UNIX, I still end up using TPU on VMS, and vi on UNIX.  I use Emacs exclusively
on my Amiga, so I am not unfamiliar with it.  Even so, using three editors
all the time, I don't seem to get too confused.

UNIX: vi is partially ingrained, and emacs takes too long to pop up
      (I never got the hang of leaving it lying around, etc.)  Also
      my terminal (the infamous vt220) doesn't have an excape or meta
      key handy.  I do use Emacs when the occasion warrants.
VMS: Emacs just takes too darn long to pull up.  TPU gives me about
     the same power, considering that Emacs on VMS doesn't let me do
     all that it does on UNIX.  I hop directories so much, that even
     if I leave Emacs running, I have to change directory whenever I reattach
     to Emacs.
Symbolics: Emacs is all there is, 'nuff said.
Amiga: Anyone who uses ed or edit instead of microEmacs, has probably never
     used microEmacs (or microGnuEmacs).  I can even get used to 
     meta-control-mouse-in-text-window type commands.

If I were to explicitly force a STUDENT to use vi or emacs, I would probably
have him use vi, just because it has a shorter ramp up time.  The teaching
assistants, terminal room attendants, and the person sitting next to them
probably know vi also and can help the student.

For a user with some experience, I would suggest emacs (which is what I suggest
new UNIX users use on my system).

Something between the two is what I would suggest if there were such a thing.
When the students get to the real (possibly non-unix) world, this fictitious
editor would be more similar to what they will encounter (such as always
being in insert-mode).  If Emacs is available, it will be easy to ramp
up to.  If vi is all that's around, it isn't that hard for a college
graduate to learn.

A final alternative is to start the students off on vi, but let them
know that Emacs is available and encourage them to learn it later on
when they can afford the time, and have the basic's of editing learned.
Of course, knowing students, this is impracticle.

Darin Johnson (...pyramid.arpa!leadsv!laic!darin)
              (...ucbvax!sun!sunncal!leadsv!laic!darin)
	"All aboard the DOOMED express!"