[Sussex] vi, Emacs and VIPER

[Geoff Teale]

Steve wrote:
------------
> I though the vi emulation in Emacs was vile (I know that that 
> name has been used elsewhere) back when I started using Emacs
> 5 - 10 years ago.

It's actually reasonable these days, but still an abhorent way of doing
things!  It was developed further by Matz (the Japanese guy who is to Ruby
what Larry Wall is to Perl), so that he could have a sensible, modern
development environment without having to relearn all his built up vi muscle
memory.  Ruby was written using it, and as such most of the annoyances were
smoothed out (it's now maintained by people other than Matz - his time is
monopolised by Ruby, now the most popular development language in Japan,
South Korea and China).

> Just to play devils advocate from our vi/emacs rant (more
> tomorrow).
>     This also gives you the worst of both worlds:  The
>     un-intuitive interface or vi with the large run-time
>     image that is Emacs :-)

I absolutely agree, and as the developers point out, there is nothing vi can
do that Emacs couldn't do anyway if you were prepared to learn it.  Really
this is just a way of giving vi users a way to get some of the advantages of
living in the 21st century without having to leave the 1970's behind
completely. ;)  The also point out that VIPER under emacs is infact
significantly more powerful than any version of vi.

-- 
GJT
Free Software, Free Society. 
http://www.fsf.org   http://www.gnu.org


The above information is confidential to the addressee and may be privileged.  Unauthorised access and use is prohibited.
 
Internet communications are not secure and therefore this Company does not accept legal responsibility for the contents of this message.
 
If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful.
 
Claybrook Computing Limited is a subsidiary of Claybrook Computing (Holdings) Limited
Registered Office: Abbey House. 282 Farnborough Road, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7NJ
Registered in England and Wales No 1287205
 
A Hogg Robinson plc company