VI vs. EMACS: The Thread

[saikee]

But I think this notion that it is essential for an emergency have become obsolete with the advent of the live cd.

Not so fast yet, if your Live CD fails to match the video and you are dropped into the terminal then the chances are "vi" is often what you are left with.

[mrrangerman43]

The authors point is just what saikee has said, there are, and will be times when vi will be the only thing a person can use. I know I have already had it happen to me, it wasn't a big deal but I sure felt like a fish out of water. I'm finding as I learn more about pc's how much faster working without a mouse is.

[Calipso]

Plus, you never know when you might have to edit files on a remote machine to which you only have an ssh connection and it doesn't have X installed.

[blackbelt_jones]

Not so fast yet, if your Live CD fails to match the video and you are dropped into the terminal then the chances are "vi" is often what you are left with.

Well, I don't know what that means. Do you mean if your live CD doesn't work with your video card with x?

To be honest, at my current level of expertise, I'm probably going to be reinstalling my / partition long before things have devolved to the point of single user mode... I've never been in a situation that I knew how to fix with a text editor. I can't understand why a live CD couldn't work, but I was already over my head in this discussion a while ago.

[knute]

hehehe... There are TONS of issues that can be fixed with a text editor.
Matter of fact, I feel blinded when I have to use a gui to get to some setting somewhere.
Any issue that you come up against that you have a gui that you can use to fix it, also has a setting in a text file that can be changed by hand.

I'm not pounding gui's mind you, as I've used my fair share to fix things quick as well. Though, after I find out what text file that I need to go into, i go into the text file, simply because if things get BROKE, that gui may not be available for my use. (but that's personal preference).

[ladoga]

I can't understand why a live CD couldn't work, but I was already over my head in this discussion a while ago.

If the computer in question doesn't have CD drive. If you don't have a working net connection and no live CD handy. If you log in to remote machine using SSH.
And so forth.

[deathadder]

I had a nightmare of a time getting use to VI/VIM when I first started using it, but now I find myself using Notepad or something else in Windows and trying to :wq, just in case people didn't know, :x saves and exits if there is a file/filename.

If you can learn to use both editors well then your set. I haven't used Emacs in a while, because I feel like VI/VIM is just more suited to editing files quickly, not as much bloat. But that's just me.

Now only if I knew it better! Maybe I'll just get myself on of these to help me out...
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/mugs/7bbe/

[wheelnut]

When I set out in the land of unix, I was told (at the time), that the only editor that you could guarantee would be on any unix would be vi... so I kinda stuck with it. I would not say that I am particularly good with it, I simply have gotten used to it, so such an extent that when I use a word processor, whether it be under linux or windows, I find myself trying to search by pressing / and trying to save by typing :wq
I do not know whether emacs is any better, I have never used it. I used to use Joe for a while (similar to WordStar - remember that?), but kept forgetting it was available and reverting back to vi.

[matrix4u]

Well its funny that people compares VI and EMACS. Both have their own features. In fact a few years ago I was addicted of VI while coding a few applications. But as soon as I came in touch of EMACS I become one of the emacs lover. As its a pretty handy editor which helps user (ofcourse after a few months of efforts) for comparatively easy to search (similar to firefox searchbar) and replace using it. And contains all the features which vi contains like syntax highlighting. But yes if today someone gives me file to edit then I prefer EMACS as a tool which gives comfortable navigation and updation support.

I recommand EMACS inspite of VI to use.

[phlipant]

What I really love about vi is the map function, which allows you to create your own vi instructions. a simple statement like

:map m /word1^v^[cwword2^v^[

allows you to change every event of word1 by toggling through a file with m.

[sleepyEDB]

When I was first learning UNIX, the guy teaching me insisted that I learn vi for many of the same reasons that have already been mentioned (it's the standard editor, always available, etc.). I too had a very hard time adjusting to straight vi.

That was, until I discovered vim. Vim (or vi improved) has many features and additions that make it more functional and usable than the original vi. Also, your local .vimrc file allows for an almost limitless amount of personalization. Since vim allowed me to satisfy my teacher in that I was (more or less) still using vi, while at the same time causing me to pull out significantly less hair, I never saw the need to try Emacs, and still never have.

I do agree that vi/vim have a very steep learning curve, but the payoff in efficient text-file editing once you're over that curve is worth it.

I also find myself reverting to vim commands when in other programs as well...even when replying to emails in MS Outlook!

So, in short...vim, FTW!!


sleepy

[X_console]

Actually where I work everyone uses vim. Just so much easier for development on UNIX/Linux. I haven't used emacs in ages, and I don't think I really would. It's not like vim or some other vi clone is ever going away for good. In the end they're both just text editors so whatever you use is your call. As long as it doesn't mangle the contents when I open it up in my preferred editor I'm good with it.

[kstrat2001]

this is a great thread for a beginner. I just stumbled upon this while looking for answers. I've been lost for a few days now with emacs. I'm trying to figure out how to compile a c program in this darn OS.

I'm such a spoiled Mac/Windows user without a clue what to do here. I'm downloading kdevelop now to see if an IDE will help but I would really like to try vi/vim. What is the best way to get started? Is there a "Hello World" example out there?

Some info on my sys:

AMD 64 based Ubuntu 6.06 LTS
I've got the latest gcc
I've got emacs
haven't opened vi yet (yeah, I'm that fresh with this)

Here's the gcc -v output:

gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
Target: x86_64-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --enable-languages=c,c++,java,f95,objc,ada,treelang --prefix=/usr --enable-shared --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib--without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --enable-nls --program-suffix=-4.0 --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-java-awt=gtk-default --enable-gtk-cairo --with-java-home=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.4.2-gcj-4.0-1.4.2.0/jre --enable-mpfr --disable-werror --enable-checking=releasex86_64-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.0.3 (Ubuntu 4.0.3-1ubuntu5)

[X_console]

You should probably have just posted this in the programming question. What is your questions exactly? How to compile a program or how to write the program in vi? vi is just a text editor. Just type in the code there, and then you can use gcc to compile it.

[kstrat2001]

Sry bout the re-direction. Anyway, as a beginner, it seems that vim will be better for me. Emacs seems to be a bit too much to start with.

Another question, do people use vim for anything other than programming?