[Sussex] Straw Poll

[Steve Dobson]

Geoff

On 28 April 2003 at 15:27 Geoff Teale wrote:
> Gareth wrote:
> ------------
> > Even the likes of edit in MsDos had the fundamental
> > design to allow easy use for a beginners. But then
> > there are probably harder editors to use then vi
> > that just are not that popular.
> 
> I can only name one editor I've ever used that was less 
> intuitive than vi, and that was ed.  Really vi should
> have died a death many years ago, but by the time more
> intuitive editors came about people had learned vi and
> appreciated its powerful shorthand - it's success is a 
> triumph of substance over style (which is a rare thing
> in this day and age).  

Geoff, I'll have you drummed out of the Brownies for saying
that a valued and tool in *nix should die :-)

What many seam to have forgotten is that vi was one of, if
not the, first visual editor(s) around.  Before that editing
was done line by line.  Unix pre-dates the first VDUs (or
at least Thompson & Ritchie didn't have such expensive bits
of kit to play with).

I'll admit that vi's interface is non-intuitive, but for 
someone like me who has taken the time to learn how to
drive it that time has paid off.  I can now do much, more
in vi than any other editor (including [X]Emacs).  By being
non-intuitive it has forced be to become a better vi user,
and thus more efficient.  User friendly and intuitive systems
do not encouraging one to become better at using them.  In
some ways intuitiveness has it problems.  But if that is the 
world you want go back to programming in simple scripting 
languages, like say VB.   [I wonder if I over did it :-)]

Steve