Editor Wars N, where N is large

[Jim Franklin]

-

Sigh.  The Editor Wars continue, ad nauseum.  The "Subject:" line changes
so fast that I haven't been able to successfully "K"ill them all.  They're
like a virus that mutates ...

I think people in netland are missing some very basic points in all this.
What people are forgetting when they flame vi, emacs, gnu, etc. is that
they have been using their favorite editor for a *long* time.  They
forget how painful that first week was. They forget that it took them a
month before they could put the manual away.  They forget that it took
them six months to get really proficient at it.  Now they edit in
"autopilot" mode -- both head and fingers do the right stuff without
conscious thought.  Then they try a new editor and say

        "^H?  What the hell does that have to do with moving a cursor?"
        "What is mnemonic about ESC[^23j ??"
        "What moron wrote this editor?!?!?"

The answer is that it doesn't really matter.

If you are honest about it, I think you'll probably agree that there are
at least half a dozen "reasonably" powerful editors around.  We have
about that many at our site, and few people use the same editor.  Each
editor has some nice features, but none are so much better than the
others for people to go back to the Dark Ages again when they had to
consciously think about what keys to hit.  The cost in time and
aggravation in learning a new editor just isn't worth it.  Unless you use
ed, of course ...

So what to do? If you have an editor you really like then use it.  Quit
flaming other editors just because you can't use them without talking
out loud.  If you find an editor that blows away your favorite editor
then learn the new one; just be prepared for a big loss in productivity
and a real bad temper for a few weeks.

Peace.  Please, no more Editor Wars.  Then maybe unix-wizards can get
back to something *truly* productive, like what "bss" stands for :-( :-(

-----

{harvard!adelie,{decvax,allegra,talcott}!encore}!munsell!jwf

Jim Franklin, Eikonix Corp., 23 Crosby Drive, Bedford, MA 01730
Phone: (617) 275-5070 x415