Textedit wars (was vi vs emacs in a student environment)

[Bruce G. Barnett]

In article <8196 at brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn at brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes:
|I actually do use "vi" on my Sun, until I get "sam" running.  (The
|SunTools text editor is a joke.)  Given a choice between "vi" or an
|EMACS variant I'll choose EMACS, but those aren't the only choices.

Actually, I use textedit a lot. It has several things going for it.
The bigest one is:

(SunOS 4.0):
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root        32768 Apr  9 04:49 /usr/bin/textedit

(SunOS 3.4.2):
-rwxr-xr-x  3 barnett    991232 Feb 29 11:48 /usr/local/bin/emacs
-rwxrwxr-x  1 barnett    581632 Aug 31  1987 /usr/local/bin/emacstool

Yes, size. emacs+emacstool (SUnOS 3.4) is 48 TIMES larger than
textedit (SunOS 4.0). (yes, emacstool will shrink under 4.0. No, don't
have the numbers yet).

On My Sun 3/50 - I have stopped compiling within emacs.
With only 4 Meg, my sun pages like crazy, and large compiles take
twice as long or longer.

Also, textedit is MUCH more powerful than it seems at first glance.

For instance, I can click on the entire file (four quick clicks), and
press one function key. This could do any of the following:

	check for spelling and pop up a new window with the
	  misspelled words

	re-format a C program (or just a procedure), and continue editing it.

	Generate troff output and print it on a laser printer,

	etc. etc. etc.

The power of the pending delete, secondary selection, and multiple
clicking provides a very powerful set of accerators.

Let's say I wanted to swap the contents of two buffers or files.
This can be done by:

	Hold down Control and quad-click with the left mouse
	Now hold down Put 

	Go to other buffer and quad-click the mouse
	Release Control-Put

	go back to first window and press Get

Look at that again. I pressed and released three keys.
I clicked the mouse in one window, then in another window and then
moved it back. 

I agree that this isn't obvious at first. But as you learn more,
this IS obvious. And because it combines the use of both hands,
it can be very fast. And don't forget that this is all visual.
You don't HAVE to know the names of the buffers or files.
You identify the buffers and sections you want to exchange with your eyes.
This is a Window System, remember?

Swaping arbitrary lines or paragraphs around is Just As Easy.
It doesn't even have to be in the same file, or the same program.
Textedit can do this between shells, editors and the mailtool.
You can read several articles from USENET, and post a followup.
Using textedit, you can cut out pieces of dozen's of articles
and paste them into your followup. WITHOUT knowing the filename the
articles are stored in.

PLEASE note that I am not knocking EMACS, vi, ed, or sam.

But I am saying that textedit is NOT "a joke". 

People are always talking about 'tools'. Well, textedit is a 'tool'
for window systems.  

To paraphrase Chris Torek:

	Think 'tools'. Think 'windows'.
-- 
	Bruce G. Barnett 	<barnett at ge-crd.ARPA> <barnett at steinmetz.UUCP>
				uunet!steinmetz!barnett