5 ms·

Vim not vi. Or does anyone actually use vi?

by Watabou 13y ago

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
daniel-cussen 13y ago
I think pg uses vi.
meepmorp 13y ago
> Or does anyone actually use vi? Folks working on machines without vim who don't have root. Source: an 18 month consulting gig several years ago.
- LukeShu 13y ago
  They usually have one of the many clones of vi, installed as vi. Very few use actual vi, because for many years it was out-of-bounds because it used AT&T code from ed.
  - meepmorp 13y ago
    Yeah, I meant whatever generic vi-alike is installed instead of vim.
  - voltagex_ 13y ago
    Interesting. What's the easiest way to check which vi binary I have?
    - a3n 13y ago
      $ update-alternatives --display vi vi - auto mode link currently points to /usr/bin/vim.gtk ... Or you could brute force it: $ ll $(which vi) lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 May 16 17:14 /usr/bin/vi -> /etc/alternatives/vi* $ ll /etc/alternatives/vi lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 May 17 06:07 /etc/alternatives/vi -> /usr/bin/vim.gtk* $ ll /usr/bin/vim.gtk -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2391176 Apr 2 03:18 /usr/bin/vim.gtk* vim.gtk is likely coded to behave differently depending on how it was invoked, as vim or vi for example.
- outworlder 13y ago
  Well, if you have SSH access, you could just edit those files with Emacs anyway. It has support for remote files (via TRAMP) out of the box.
  - pyre 13y ago
    Or just FUSE + sshfs, and any editor that you have locally. :-P
  - meepmorp 13y ago
    Well, sure, but then I'd just use vim like a sane person.
- seewhat 13y ago
  I encounter vi on a production Solaris 10 box at my current consulting gig. I can access the box from other hosts with tramp. I believe that firewall rules will be changed to restrict many production SSH connections to be outbound, which might signal the end of that use case(?) Other editors found on the production box: ed, xedit (X Consortium).
yfefyf 13y ago
Paul Graham, http://www.paulgraham.com/pfaq.html http://www.paulgraham.com/pfaq.html
- saosebastiao 13y ago
  Interesting, I never knew this. I guess I just assumed that all the famous lisp hackers automatically were emacs users.
hk__2 13y ago
I wrote "Vim", then edited my comment to make it generic: vi, Vim, elvis, nvi, etc.

Vim not vi. Or does anyone actually use vi?

by Watabou 13y ago

Vim not vi. Or does anyone actually use vi?

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

daniel-cussen 13y ago

I think pg uses vi.

meepmorp 13y ago

> Or does anyone actually use vi? Folks working on machines without vim who don't have root. Source: an 18 month consulting gig several years ago.

LukeShu 13y ago
They usually have one of the many clones of vi, installed as vi. Very few use actual vi, because for many years it was out-of-bounds because it used AT&T code from ed.
- meepmorp 13y ago
  Yeah, I meant whatever generic vi-alike is installed instead of vim.
- voltagex_ 13y ago
  Interesting. What's the easiest way to check which vi binary I have?
  - a3n 13y ago
    $ update-alternatives --display vi vi - auto mode link currently points to /usr/bin/vim.gtk ... Or you could brute force it: $ ll $(which vi) lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 May 16 17:14 /usr/bin/vi -> /etc/alternatives/vi* $ ll /etc/alternatives/vi lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 May 17 06:07 /etc/alternatives/vi -> /usr/bin/vim.gtk* $ ll /usr/bin/vim.gtk -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2391176 Apr 2 03:18 /usr/bin/vim.gtk* vim.gtk is likely coded to behave differently depending on how it was invoked, as vim or vi for example.
outworlder 13y ago
Well, if you have SSH access, you could just edit those files with Emacs anyway. It has support for remote files (via TRAMP) out of the box.
- pyre 13y ago
  Or just FUSE + sshfs, and any editor that you have locally. :-P
- meepmorp 13y ago
  Well, sure, but then I'd just use vim like a sane person.
seewhat 13y ago
I encounter vi on a production Solaris 10 box at my current consulting gig. I can access the box from other hosts with tramp. I believe that firewall rules will be changed to restrict many production SSH connections to be outbound, which might signal the end of that use case(?) Other editors found on the production box: ed, xedit (X Consortium).

yfefyf 13y ago

Paul Graham, http://www.paulgraham.com/pfaq.html http://www.paulgraham.com/pfaq.html

saosebastiao 13y ago
Interesting, I never knew this. I guess I just assumed that all the famous lisp hackers automatically were emacs users.

hk__2 13y ago

I wrote "Vim", then edited my comment to make it generic: vi, Vim, elvis, nvi, etc.