4 ms·
I'm a vi guy. IME the big virtue of vi and it's various clones (vim, etc) is that it's easy to install and likely to already be there. Vim is pretty feature-ric
by pmccool 16y ago
I'm a vi guy. IME the big virtue of vi and it's various clones (vim, etc) is that it's easy to install and likely to already be there. Vim is pretty feature-rich too.
I don't know that it's worth learning unless you work in a UNIX environment. I myself use it in Windows precisely because I can't be bothered learning another, different-but-no-better text editor. Is it worth learning from scratch if you live in Windows? I honestly don't know. In UNIX, of course, the historical reason for knowing vi (and ed, its line-editor cousin) was ubiquity. It's less of an issue these days - the odds of vi being your only choice are, I daresay, slim.
The downside is that its UI is ancient and wierd.
If I had to make a recommendation, it would be to learn the very basics. It won't take long and it might come in handy one day.
- silentbicycle 16y agoYes, but vi's UI is ancient and weird for the same reason APL's is - because it gets the job done.
- pmccool 16y agoIt's ancient and wierd because it gets the job done even if all you have is a teletype. It's very rare nowadays that you need something that can work in that sort of situation.
- noonespecial 16y agoI work on systems over vsat on a regular basis. 750ms rtt at times. Vim is a godsend. I find myself wishing for a good fast 60's style teletype at times.
- pmccool 16y agoHave you considered ed? I dimly recall trying a line editor over a slow-slow link and being pleasantly surprised at the difference it made...
- silentbicycle 16y agoYeah, and it works just as well inside screen/tmux over flaky wireless connections. I've also successfully used nvi on my phone's ssh client. (Emacs is possible, but its chord-heavy keybindings make that trickier.)