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In direct contrast to Vim is Emacs, a modeless editor which uses modifier keys to distinguish inserting text from navigation commands. From my perspective, ther
by Sirenos 12y ago
In direct contrast to Vim is Emacs, a modeless editor which uses modifier keys to distinguish inserting text from navigation commands. From my perspective, there doesn't appear to be any other way of choosing keybindings that keep Vim's mnemonic/composable command structure without introducing the slight mental overhead of modes.
- dredmorbius 12y agoRight. I wasn't saying that you can't make a modeless editor, only that vim is a modal one. I find vim's shorthand notation for commands far easier to deal with than emacs's long alt-meta-command constructs. After a quarter-century, I've pretty much got over the weirdness.
- kazinator 12y agoEmacs is not modeless. Firstly, it obviously has numerous modes, which have names like fundamental-mode. Secondly, its commands are modal. When you begin a command with Meta-X or Ctrl-X, Emacs goes into a different mode: the next character typed will not self-insert. All command parsing is modal.
- Sirenos 12y agoWell now you're just nitpicking. Vim's notion of a mode is far more central to its operation than that of Emacs. Major/minor modes work differently than do vim's modes.
- hollerith 12y ago>All command parsing is modal. Are you sure? Consider the way command lines are executed in Plan's Acme editor: you drag the pointing device to select the text you want to execute, then you click on the selection with the middle mouse button. (Alternatively, drag with the middle mouse button, then release that button.) There is an one-line-high area (called the tag) at the start of every editor window for typing in commands when you do not want the typing to mess up the buffer (the in-memory copy of the file being edited) itself.
- dredmorbius 12y agoExcellent point. Emacs's modality is in a different dimension than vim's. And includes vim. :)