terse editor

[david at thekramers.net (David Kramer)]

dsr at tao.merseine.nu wrote, On 02/11/2005 07:57 PM:
> On Fri, Feb 11, 2005 at 05:33:49PM -0500, karina.popkova at verizon.net wrote:
> 
>>To what extent is vi or EMACs used,
>>day to day, for development activities,
>>writing code, editing, compiling, debug,
>>etc ... Do hackers still use this stuff
>>or do they concede to graphical editors
>>and perhaps move onto next generation
>>"eclipse" as an environment?
> 
> The big split, in my experience, is actually between system
> administrators, who expect to find vi on every system, always
> working exactly the same way, and programmers, who carry around
> a complex customized emacs environment that suits their every
> whim.

Yup.  Back in the bad old days of DOS, admins needed to know edlin, because 
that's what you absolutely know was installed on each computer.  It was like 
doing a term paper in sed, but that's what you had to do.  Likewise, it 
behooves all admins today to at least know vi, whichever their preference.

There are lots of people who prefer vi, and call emacs "an operating system 
that can edit files".  Some admins will refuse to install emacs because it 
takes up so much memory.


-- 
DDDD   David Kramer         david at thekramers.net       http://thekramers.net
DK KD
DKK D  This a central tenet of cat philosophy:
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DDDD   Cats are without sin and error.                         - Jon Carroll