Rand Editor

[Ray Lubinsky]

> >VI is much more capable than RE. The keys all have mnemonic names,
> >d for delete, w for word, i for insert, etc.
> 
> h for left, j for up, k for down, l for RIGHT!?!?. Really mnemonic names,
> those. Almost as slick as zilch, which uses u for down.  Being of the emacs
> religion, I won't mention the multitude of missing features that editors
> really need; ...

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   To come to the defense of vi(1): here at my Institution of Higher Learning,
the masses (those of us graduate students who don't have office space) must
use Lear-Siegler adm3a terminals.  On these, the h,j,k,l keys are labeled with
the appropriate arrows -- so, mnemonic or not, it's obvious which key does what
function.

   On the adm5 on my desk, h,j,k,l still represent the same motion keys, though
the separate arrow keys are still bound to ^H,^J,^K,^L respectively.  Any how,
the h,j,k,l keys are conveniently placed under my fingers.  That counts for a
lot.

   We have Rand Editor here; it's about as popular as vi(1).  I'm a proponent
of the latter, but I _would_ like windowing.  Someday I'll grok EMACS, but for
now I can still accomplish a lot with vi(1).

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Ray Lubinsky		     University of Virginia, Dept. of Computer Science
			     uucp: decvax!mcnc!ncsu!uvacs!rwl