jwf@munsell.UUCP (Jim Franklin) (10/13/86)
- Sigh. The Editor Wars continue, ad nauseum. The "Subject:" line changes so fast that I haven't been able to successfully "K"ill them all. They're like a virus that mutates ... I think people in netland are missing some very basic points in all this. What people are forgetting when they flame vi, emacs, gnu, etc. is that they have been using their favorite editor for a *long* time. They forget how painful that first week was. They forget that it took them a month before they could put the manual away. They forget that it took them six months to get really proficient at it. Now they edit in "autopilot" mode -- both head and fingers do the right stuff without conscious thought. Then they try a new editor and say "^H? What the hell does that have to do with moving a cursor?" "What is mnemonic about ESC[^23j ??" "What moron wrote this editor?!?!?" The answer is that it doesn't really matter. If you are honest about it, I think you'll probably agree that there are at least half a dozen "reasonably" powerful editors around. We have about that many at our site, and few people use the same editor. Each editor has some nice features, but none are so much better than the others for people to go back to the Dark Ages again when they had to consciously think about what keys to hit. The cost in time and aggravation in learning a new editor just isn't worth it. Unless you use ed, of course ... So what to do? If you have an editor you really like then use it. Quit flaming other editors just because you can't use them without talking out loud. If you find an editor that blows away your favorite editor then learn the new one; just be prepared for a big loss in productivity and a real bad temper for a few weeks. Peace. Please, no more Editor Wars. Then maybe unix-wizards can get back to something *truly* productive, like what "bss" stands for :-( :-( ----- {harvard!adelie,{decvax,allegra,talcott}!encore}!munsell!jwf Jim Franklin, Eikonix Corp., 23 Crosby Drive, Bedford, MA 01730 Phone: (617) 275-5070 x415
urban@spp2.UUCP (Mike Urban) (10/15/86)
In article <318@wyszecki.munsell.UUCP> jwf@munsell.UUCP (Jim Franklin) writes: > >I think people in netland are missing some very basic points in all this. >What people are forgetting when they flame vi, emacs, gnu, etc. is that >they have been using their favorite editor for a *long* time. They >forget how painful that first week was. They forget that it took them a >month before they could put the manual away. They forget that it took >them six months to get really proficient at it. Now they edit in >"autopilot" mode -- both head and fingers do the right stuff without >conscious thought. Then they try a new editor and say > > "^H? What the hell does that have to do with moving a cursor?" > "What is mnemonic about ESC[^23j ??" > "What moron wrote this editor?!?!?" > >The answer is that it doesn't really matter. This Editor Wars discussion is also going on in net.text. I think that when we are discussing "ease of use" or "mnemonic value", we forget something very important: The Packaging. If you go around a word-processing department and ask the people which word-processing software they like to use, you find that they find packages like Word Perfect "easy to use". But are they really easier to use (as editors) than vi or emacs? I don't think so. You still have a whole slew of Special Buttons that have little Intrinsic Relationship to the task at hand. I think the reason that non-techist people find these systems easy is because of the supporting material: a user manual written in a step-by-step fashion with lots of illustrative examples, an uncluttered reference card for the most often- used functions, nifty cut-outs or key caps that fit onto the terminal for special functions, glossy paper, large type, etc., etc. If you could package vi or emacs this way (or TeX or Troff, for that matter), everyone would immediately start rating these programs much higher. And the intrinsic properties of the programs wouldn't change a bit. One side observation. We have a steady trickle of people here who migrate (for one reason or another) to Unix from VMS. Former EDT users do find Emacs easier to deal with than vi, since Emacs is, like EDT, single-mode. -- Mike Urban ...!trwrb!trwspp!spp2!urban "You're in a maze of twisty UUCP connections, all alike"