Porting UNIX Applications to the Mac

[Bill Winkle]

>>> I am far more productive with "vi" on UNIX than with any of
>>> the mouse-based editors I've run across on the Mac. 

>> Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

> I am in 100% agreement with this. In my opinion, vi is the *worst*
> screen-oriented editor that I have ever had the misfortune of using.
> I am always finding new "features" that I wasn't aware of. Unfortunately,
> the new features I discover usually wipe out random pieces of text
> in mysterious ways that are difficult to reverse.

My experience is different.  The new things I find out about periodically
are useful to me.  Vi is, for me, a productive editing environment, so
much so that I regularly write programs with it and then send the stuff
to my Mac for compiling and debugging.  And when I know I'm going to
make a lot of changes, I send it back to the Vax.

More general comment:
It's true that mouse-based editors make it easier to perform some of
the motion commands (e.g., 3 lines up, 20 characters left).  But isn't
it true that it's easier to perform other motion commands with
keystrokes (e.g., move to the top or bottom of the screen)?

Mac users (some of 'em, anyway) like to talk about modeless
operation, but let's not forget:  the mouse *IS* a mode.

Modelessness is a myth, propagated sometimes by people who should
know better.

-- 
Paul DuBois     UUCP: {allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!dubois    |
                ARPA: dubois at easter                               --+--
                                                                    |
"If it works, I didn't write it."                                   |