Porting UNIX Applications to the Mac

[Mike Meyer]

In article <981 at cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> wetter at tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (Pierce T. Wetter) writes:
>In article <15372 at mordor.ARPA> jdb at mordor.UUCP (John Bruner) writes:
>>  I am far more productive with "vi" on UNIX than with any of
>>the mouse-based editors I've run across on the Mac. 
>
>     Considering my experiences with vi (holding the up/down/left/right keys
>causes some versions to delete random snatches of text) this is the most 
>hilarious thing i've ever heard.

Which just goes to show that you haven't much experience with vi.

>You cant tell me that pointing and clicking with the mouse isn't faster
>then banging away on random cursor keys.

Actually, I can. Somewhere I've got a paper describing a study done on
editor interfaces, and it turns out that the fastest interface - in
general - is a foursome of arrow keys plus function keys. Second is an
emacs-like interface (vi wasn't in the study), and third is the mouse.
Finding the mouse seems to be the killer.

>It's true that you can go directly to a specific line number but you
>can't easily go up five lines and over twenty characters. Also a mouse
>based editor is much easier to cut & paste in (which if you looked at
>code I've written you'll know why I like this--" Who needs a for next
>loop I'll just paste it in five times")

Being an emacs user, the thing that I most like about the mouse
interface is the ability to bounce to text in another window without
worrying about changing windows. But this is why my Amiga emacs has 24
bindable mouse buttons; so I can get LOTS of mouse functionality when
I start using it. I move between the two modes regularly.

Of course, cut in paste with or without the mouse is equally hard: go
to one end, mark, go to the other end, cut. The only real difference
is the moving. It's easier to do all this with whatever my hands are
on, be it the mouse or the keyboard.

>     Also, you need to move your hands away from the "home row" whenever you 
>hit the escape key or any other "control key".

Hmm. Seems that the ESC key on my Sun is easily reachable by the ring
finger of my left hand. In fact, I hit the F1 key (caps lock) above it
so often that I set it up to be an ESC key also. Of course, I have big
hands.

	<mike