4 ms·

I hear a lot about this vim vs emacs war. But I have never seen a battle, so to speak. Where can I see videos of people actually using this text editors? A sid

by BoppreH 16y ago

I hear a lot about this vim vs emacs war. But I have never seen a battle, so to speak. Where can I see videos of people actually using this text editors? A side by side comparison of interesting/useful features? I really would like to choose, but the most I managed to find was a guy playing snake on his emacs. I'm currently using the very basics features of vim, but just because I felt like it and it came with a tutor file.

jherdman 16y ago
Have you checked out the VIMCasts (http://vimcasts.org/ http://vimcasts.org/) series? They're pretty great. I don't know of an equivalent series for Emacs. I'm a VIM-ophile, but I find ELisp to be a major draw for Emacs. I think if I could entirely swap out the movement features of Emacs for those of VIM completely, I'd switch tomorrow. That said, Viper and Vimpulse just don't cut it.
revaaron 16y ago
All the really matters is that you use what you like. If you like gedit or notepad++ that's just fine. FYI, emacs also comes with an extensive tutorial. Personally, I used emacs and clones (mg and JASSPA MicroEmacs) for a long time- though I never really went very deep into the features. Then, I started a job where I'd be doing some sysadmin work on AIX boxes- nothing but vi and ed installed- so I figured I should sharpen my rusty vi/vim skills. I've found myself using more of the features available in VIM, as well as writing plugins myself. After you get past the initial weirdness (for folks coming from emacs and other modeless editors) I've found it easier. Less of a learning/feature curve, far fewer keystrokes, and almost no "Meta-Shift-Control-Z Ctrl-X abc" acrobatics. UI feels more modular in that I'm stringing together simple commands rather than using a command that does something specific. Not advocating so much as trying to explain where I came from when I started using vim...
- BoppreH 16y ago
  Thanks for the info. The problem with the "use what you like" approach is that the emacs/vim learning curve are too steep. By the time I am actually using one of them I'll have spent so much that the fear of change starts to strike and I'm stuck with that editor.

by BoppreH 16y ago

jherdman 16y ago

Have you checked out the VIMCasts (http://vimcasts.org/ http://vimcasts.org/) series? They're pretty great. I don't know of an equivalent series for Emacs. I'm a VIM-ophile, but I find ELisp to be a major draw for Emacs. I think if I could entirely swap out the movement features of Emacs for those of VIM completely, I'd switch tomorrow. That said, Viper and Vimpulse just don't cut it.

revaaron 16y ago

All the really matters is that you use what you like. If you like gedit or notepad++ that's just fine. FYI, emacs also comes with an extensive tutorial. Personally, I used emacs and clones (mg and JASSPA MicroEmacs) for a long time- though I never really went very deep into the features. Then, I started a job where I'd be doing some sysadmin work on AIX boxes- nothing but vi and ed installed- so I figured I should sharpen my rusty vi/vim skills. I've found myself using more of the features available in VIM, as well as writing plugins myself. After you get past the initial weirdness (for folks coming from emacs and other modeless editors) I've found it easier. Less of a learning/feature curve, far fewer keystrokes, and almost no "Meta-Shift-Control-Z Ctrl-X abc" acrobatics. UI feels more modular in that I'm stringing together simple commands rather than using a command that does something specific. Not advocating so much as trying to explain where I came from when I started using vim...

BoppreH 16y ago
Thanks for the info. The problem with the "use what you like" approach is that the emacs/vim learning curve are too steep. By the time I am actually using one of them I'll have spent so much that the fear of change starts to strike and I'm stuck with that editor.