[geeks] vi vs. emacs - rational discussion

[Joshua Boyd]

On Sun, Apr 04, 2004 at 01:18:18PM -0400, Sandwich Maker wrote:

> "> ditto, in spades - though vi happened to be my first editor.  all the
> "> gingerbread emacs offers we all can get just by opening another xterm
> "> etc.
> 
> well, no - but i don't use any kind of function protos in vi.  i don't
> miss 'em badly enough to figger out how to do 'em.

<snip>

> that would be -really-useful- if i did much coding.

I wasn't trying to say you need to make use of these features, I was
trying to point out that emacs does indeed offer stuff you don't get in
vi by just popping up another xterm.

That these features are a limited usefulness to many system's
administrators doesn't mean they aren't there.  I may be able to point
out more features of use to non-coders, but for the most part I don't
know vi well enough to really say they aren't there.

For what it's worth, when I need to pop open a .txt file for a note, or
modify a system file, I use vi.  For emailing and coding I use emacs.