VI(1) vs. the world

[John Owens]

In article <523 at epimass.UUCP>, jbuck at epimass.UUCP (Joe Buck) writes:
> In article <3772 at umcp-cs.UUCP> chris at umcp-cs.UUCP (Chris Torek) writes:
> >>In article <113 at twg-ap.UUCP> narayan at twg-ap.UUCP (Narayan Mohanram) writes:
> >>"40a -<ESC>" to be able to make an 80 column dashed line.
> >Making a dashed line is more difficult.  Vi has a major advantage
> >over Emacs here.
> I'm surprised at you, Chris.  An old Emacs hand like you should know
> that ESC 8 0 - makes an 80 column dashed line [....]
> - Joe Buck 	{hplabs,fortune}!oliveb!epimass!jbuck, nsc!csi!epimass!jbuck

Please note that "40a -<ESC>" inserts " -" 40 times, not "-" 80 times.
The only way to do that in Emacs (without writing a function) is
"^X( -^X)<ESC>40^Xe", 11 keystrokes, and lots of controlling and
shifting.  And don't forget that the vi command set is orthogonal and
object-based.  You not only have "d " (same as x) "dw" "dW" "dd", you
also can also do "d0" (delete to beginning of line) "d$" (delete to
end of line) "d)" (delete to end of sentence (or s-expr in lisp mode))
"d]]" (delete to end of nroff section), and just about anything else
you can think of.  Even things like "d'a" or "d`a" (delete to mark a)
and "d15G" (delete to line 15) and "d/abc<CR>" (delete to the pattern
abc) work.  (And they can all be repeated....)

vi's not Emacs, but it is an amazing editor.  I use both, depending on
what I am doing.  I have even switched between the editors while
editing the same file.  As has been said before, they're both tools to
do whatever it is you want to do.

John Owens		General Electric Company - Charlottesville, VA
jso at edison.GE.COM	old arpa: jso%edison.GE.COM at seismo.CSS.GOV
+1 804 978 5726		old uucp: {seismo,decuac,houxm,calma}!edison!jso