Re: [TCLUG:13146] VI quick reference

["Eric M. Hopper" <hopper@omnifarious.mn.org>]

On Mon, Jan 31, 2000 at 08:44:42PM -0600, Gabe Turner wrote:
> What in the name of the Maker is wrong with vi?  It's my editor of
> choice for everything I do!  I write code in it!  Hell, I write my
> mail in it!  It's a sweet editor, and it's a sinch to use if you
> spend 5 minutes commiting a few simple keystrokes to memory.  There
> have been quite a few times when having a dual-mode editor has saved
> my ass and protected me from doing some damage to a file I was
> editing.

	Well, what works for you isn't important.  What's important is
all the difficulty students have in using it.  Most people find the idea
of using h, j, k, and l to move around the be rather unintuitive.  And
even if your version of vi supports the arrows keys, the idea of having
to hit 'i' before you type anything confuses people no end too.  It just
isn't how people expect things to work.

	It's bad enough they're being thrown all kinds of difficult (for
them) programming concepts they have to quickly get a handle on without
throwing a non-intuitive editor at them.

	They should be told vi exists, and if they want to take the time
to learn it, more power to them.  Maybe it is, in the long-run, better.
But I know that most people find it extremely frustrating to work with
when they first touch it, and they find modeless editors much easier to
work with.

Have fun (if at all psosible),
-- 
Its name is Public Opinion.  It is held in reverence. It settles everything.
Some think it is the voice of God.  Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet
broke a chain or freed a human soul.     ---Mark Twain
-- Eric Hopper (hopper@omnifarious.mn.org  http://omnifarious.mn.org/~hopper) --

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