Re: bi (Please stop it)

[Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au>]

On Wed, 16 Apr 1997, Pete Templin wrote:

> I agree with Joey's original message: let's let the editor debate rest a
> bit, folks, or give it focus and a new thread name.

i disagree.  I see two valuable results from the thread:

1.  people get to show off neat tricks that they've learnt/figured out 
    with their favourite editor, whether it be vi or emacs or something
    else. This is good because by writing it in a form for other
    people to understand they achieve a greater understanding for
    themself...teaching others is a great way to learn.

2.  people get to see useful features, tips & tricks, etc for the editors -
    possibly helping them to learn how to use their editor more effectively,
    or even helping them to make a choice as to which editor to focus their
    learning on.

    newbies hear all sorts of claims that 'vi is powerful' and 'emacs
    is powerful' - but unless they have the opportunity to see some
    examples then they should take these claims with a huge grain of
    salt.

isn't the self-education process a big part of what this mailing list
is about?

Both emacs & vi are good editors - i personally prefer vi but
acknowledge that emacs has some neat features too (every so often i try
to learn emacs properly but give up because it doesn't give me anything
that vi doesn't give me in less memory and less keystrokes - i have
no use for elisp or gnus in a text editor)

If the thread devolves into '{vi/emacs} is an abomination' then it
becomes useless...but while it remains friendly, helpful rivalry it is
very useful. 

craig


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