emacs vs vi

[Root Boy Jim]

? I believe it is possible to create a <500 word summary which will allow a
? complete novice to use vi at a rudimentary level sufficient to create or
? arbitrarily modify any text file (append, insert, delete, save, etc.) I have
? not heard of any such claim made for emacs. If such a summary does exist,
? I would be very glad to hear about it. Please post to me and I will summarize
? to the net.
?                                                     John Roberts
?                                                     roberts at cmr.icst.nbs.gov

Emacs has an online tutorial invoked by ^h t. Try it. Emacs also has online
documentation of all variables and funtions, as well as info-mode, which is
invoked by ^h i. The editor is self documenting. With vi you need the docs
handy or you must have already memorized the command set.

I have no problems with vi, other than the fact that I keep typing emacs
commands to it :-). Vi is good enough to avoid learning emacs, and I
resisted it for years. However, when you *do* invest the time and effort
to learn emacs, it pays off royally.

The ability to edit multiple files in multople windows and the unlimited
undo feature I consider to be the main reasons for switching. You also
get dired mode (the ability to edit/delete/rename/copy files in somewhat
of a menu mode), integrated make, grep, and shell mode, as well as a
nifty mail mode that undigests those long messages for you. I could
expound further, but will leave the rest for the novice to discover.

	(Root Boy) Jim Cottrell	<rbj at icst-cmr.arpa>
	National Bureau of Standards
	Flamer's Hotline: (301) 975-5688
	The opinions expressed are solely my own
	and do not reflect NBS policy or agreement
	Careful with that VAX Eugene!