[Gllug] vi vs emacs (repeat)

[Benedikt Heinen]

On Sat, 5 Mar 2005, Ian Norton wrote:
[...]
> b. emacs has alot of keyboard shortcuts.


First off, Ian, well put! Both editors definetely have their place. (Just 
for those interested - on this issue, I (mainly) subscribe to the "emacs 
religion").


Regarding keyboard shortcuts - there are two additional aspects in emacs 
use that I found very helpful, and that I (since I've known emacs) missed 
in other editors.

- Emacs (IIRC) often just "does the right thing" without you actively
   calling up a specific function of the editor.  (e.g. emacs was the first
   editor I've known that really did "smart" indentation for source code;
   not just maintaining the previous indentation levels that other older
   code editors did, but really automatically judge when and how much
   indentation is needed, and for how long; also, in emacs, if you open
   up a tar file, it gets opened in dired and emacs will allow you to
   edit the contents (individual files within the tar archive) without
   you having to learn tar syntax.

- For commands you use occasionally (just not long enough to really
   remember the keyboard shortcut, you can activate the command through
   its full function name; e.g. M-x replace-string  (and to help you
   remember, there, of course, is a completion available for those as
   well...)



(But, yes, before the vi-"heretics" come along with their grillings - 
there is a place for both editors; and I even occasionally use vi, though, 
admittedly I don't really know much more than basic navigation... ;-)



   Benedikt

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