vi vs emacs in a student environment

[Jon H. LaBadie]

In article <1832 at stpstn.UUCP>, aad at stpstn.UUCP (Anthony A. Datri) writes:
> The original EMACS runs on most or all of the pdp-10 os's.  Gosling/Unipress
> emacs runs on:
> 
	[ List and many more emacs variations deleted ]
> 
> Sure, the better implementions of emacs have ridiculous functionality, but
> it's all dynamic -- you don't load it if you don't want it.
> 
The original poster solicited comments on which editor was most appropriate
in an education environment, i.e. which would best serve the students
need and prepare them for post-academia.  I would come down strongly
on the vi side of this polling.

Just because emacs IS AVAILABLE for system X does not mean that on
implementation Y of system X it will be there.  Vi will be!  Yeah,
I know about older UNIX versions etc.  Don't burn me on this point.

As an employer, if I see that an employee (that's what the students
will be trying to become) lists UNIX experience on their resume, I
expect that employee to be able to work with the standard tools.  If
they can be more productive by using non-standard tools, wonderful.
But the choice of supplying/not supplying that tool is ultimately
mine.  But the student/prospective employee should be prepared to
work in whichever environment I supply.  Vi experience does that
for the student.

In the converse situation (UNIX experience claimed, company system
is UNIX-like but supplies emacs and not vi) the student's resume
is accurate and informative.  I know a ramp-up period will be needed
for both system and editor familiarization.

To my mind, if one claims to be able to work in the UNIX area, they
should be able to use the basic, supplied tools.  That is true
whether you are talking about editors or shells or ???.  You may
prefer emacs and csh, but you better know vi and sh.  The latter
properly prepares students for their post-collegiate days.

The same argument is valid for edlin in the MS_DOS world (did I
really say that word ;-)?).  You may not prefer edlin, but you
should know how to use it.

Jon LaBadie,
Education Staff Manager,
AUXCO / CBIS
{att, ulysses, princeton}!jonlab!jon

Usual employer disclaimers: why do you think I am writing this at 4:20 AM?