VI(1) vs. the world

[aglew at ccvaxa.UUCP]

.. > EMACS vs. vi
> 
> Not to mention the ":map" and ":map!" commands for keyboard macro's. (It 
> seems to me you could mimic emacs fairly well by immediately going into 
> insert mode, and using a good sprinkling of map! commands in your .exrc...)
> 
> And one volley for the other side: I really like to be able to say "15j" to
> go down 15 lines, and "40a -<ESC>" to be able to make an 80 column
> dashed line.
>
> Does Emacs, (or any other editor, for that matter) provide this repeat n 
> times facility? (this is not a rhetorical question, I don't know...)
> 
> P.S. A Challenge to those Other Editor users, I can write a vi macro to 
> 	reverse the words on a line... can you?

Believe it or not, EMACS has a vi emulation package, that provides the
count and composition facilities fairly well - I'll admit, not as well
as vi, but good enough for your examples. And making it better is simply
a matter of spending a bit more time at the GNU Lisp.

Can I write a vi macro to reverse the words on a line? Yes, fairly easily,
although the obvious approach would be to go outside to some UNIX tools.
Oh, you mean a GNU function? Yes, even more easily. Ever reverse a list
as a class exercise in LISP? And this is done inside EMACS, so no process
startup time.

Here's a challenge for you: I normally start up 4 or 5 sub-shells of my
GNU EMACS session every morning. Each with their own buffer for output.
I switch between them with two keystrokes, and I never have to remember
to type | more, or > file, for commands invoked from the shell. Can you
do that in vi?

Andy "Krazy" Glew. Gould CSD-Urbana.    USEnet:  ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!aglew
1101 E. University, Urbana, IL 61801    ARPAnet: aglew at gswd-vms