Vi vs. Emacs? [LWN.net]

Vi vs. Emacs?

Posted Mar 3, 2005 5:54 UTC (Thu) by ncm (subscriber, #165)
Parent article: A day in the life of emacs

I don't know why anyone would see Emacs and Vi as opposed. I run Vi from within Emacs, in Viper mode ("M-x viper-mode"). Detailed editing is a lot less stressful and more efficient that way, but I still have easy access to all the Emacs bloat^Wfeatures.

Essentially, in Viper mode Vi's insert mode is generic Emacs. The Vi command mode is like regular Vi command mode, but regular Emacs commands still work. There's practically no conflict. Emacs always lacked Vi's "dot" command, a serious omission; now it has it. IMHO viper-mode should be the default; then Vi would be just another subset of Emacs.

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Vi vs. Emacs?

Posted Mar 3, 2005 17:30 UTC (Thu) by mwh (guest, #582) [Link]

Bet vi still starts up faster though!

(Mandatory flameproofing: I am not being entirely serious here)

Vi vs. Emacs?

Posted Mar 5, 2005 13:33 UTC (Sat) by aglet (guest, #1334) [Link]

The fact that X?Emacs doesn't come with the very useful "dot" command is a bit annoying, however, you can get one: see for example http://www.esperi.demon.co.uk/nix/xemacs/site-wide/vi-dot...

Vi vs. Emacs?

Posted Mar 5, 2005 18:30 UTC (Sat) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link]

I don't know why anyone would see Emacs and Vi as opposed.

I think it's because so many people, including me, believe they cannot efficently maintain expertise in both. When I first started using Unix, I knew I couldn't afford to learn and keep up with more than one editor, so I looked around and picked the one that most closely met my needs.

Incidentally, it's the same reason I try not to use any program that has its own editor built in. One set of keystrokes is all I can handle.

Vi vs. Emacs?

Posted Mar 13, 2005 15:10 UTC (Sun) by anton (guest, #25547) [Link]

>[...] many people, including me, believe they cannot efficently
>maintain expertise in both. When I first started using Unix, I knew
>I couldn't afford to learn and keep up with more than one editor
>[...]

Well, expertise. I am an Emacs fan and have used it almost
exclusively for 15 years, yet I am the person in our group people who
has the most vi expertise, and am second in Emacs expertise.

As for learning, when I started with Emacs, I had had two months of
intensive vi use behind me (and missed some vi features in other
editors), yet I was a productive Emacs user (and fan) after one day or
so. My vi knowledge stays with me, though.