Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 27 Jan 2000 08:54:59 +1030
From:      Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To:        Jerry Dunham <jdunham@fc.net>
Cc:        Jonathon McKitrick <jcm@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: programmer's editor choice
Message-ID:  <20000127085459.I44457@freebie.lemis.com>
In-Reply-To: <200001262222.QAA95197@freeside.fc.net>
References:  <20000127083154.X44457@freebie.lemis.com> <200001262222.QAA95197@freeside.fc.net>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Wednesday, 26 January 2000 at 16:22:07 -0600, Jerry Dunham wrote:
> Greg Lehey babbled:
>
>> On Wednesday, 26 January 2000 at 14:11:24 +0000, Jonathon McKitrick wrote:
>>> On Sat, 22 Jan 2000, Greg Lehey wrote:
>>>> On Friday, 21 January 2000 at 23:39:12 +0000, Jonathon McKitrick wrote:
>>>
>>>>> Not to start a war or anything, but i'm trying to decide on a fast
>>>>> powerful editor.  I've been using joe, and i just started learning
>>>>> vi, and i like it so far.  But there are new editors and new
>>>>> versions of vi that seem to have a lot to offer.  I've narrowed it
>>>>> down to vi, an enhanced version of vi (vile or vim?) uemacs, or joe.
>>>>
>>>>> I really like the efficiency of vi so far, but i have a long ways to
>>>>> go before i am proficient.
>>>>
>>>> It's a steep curve.
>>>
>>> Well, i installed emacs 19 and then 20 (didn't see much of a difference, IIRC,
>>> but the problem i had was there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the
>>> key bindings.  The keys for moving the cursor make some sense,
>>> but when it comes to extra commands, well, it just doesn't seem intuitive.
>>> Maybe i'll get the hang of it in time.
>>
>> They're not intuitive.  Neither are vi commands.  The fact is that it
>> doesn't matter too much; you learn them just as quickly.
>
> Or just as slowly.  The learning curve for vi is very painful, and I
> understand the curve for Emacs is no better.

Not my understanding at all.  Once you get beyond a certain level of
complexity, there's no way to make it intuitive.  This applies to
*any* editor you care to name.  Hiding functionality behind a maze of
twisty little menus, all different, also doesn't help.  If you want
that anyway, Emacs also offers menus as standard.

Greg
--
Finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key
See complete headers for address and phone numbers


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20000127085459.I44457>