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From: cu...@orca.UUCP (Curt Stephens)
Newsgroups: net.general
Subject: emacs vs. vi
Message-ID: <99@orca.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19-Aug-83 16:10:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: orca.99
Posted: Fri Aug 19 16:10:40 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Aug-83 08:56:28 EDT
Lines: 29
I am doing a comparison of the vi screen editor and emacs (running on unix). I
have talked with several people that are familiar with vi and I have talked
with several people that are familiar with emacs. Unfortunately, it appears
that people invariably argue in favor of the editor that they themselves use.
This is especially true of those that know how to use only one editor.
Thus, I am soliciting help from netland. I would like to hear from people that
are equally familiar with both the vi screen editor and emacs. Let's say, from
people that have used both editors for at least one year.
I realize that there is usage and then there is USAGE. However, I think that
trying to establish criteria to determine relative levels of expertise would
quickly bog the whole thing down.
Please send mail directly to me rather than to the net. I will publish a
summary of all of the feedback that I receive. To make my task a little easier,
please try to limit your replies to about thirty lines.
Curt Stephens
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From: @pesnta.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.general
Subject: editors, vi vs emacs
Message-ID: <803@pesnta.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Oct-83 19:38:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: pesnta.803
Posted: Fri Oct 14 19:38:12 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Oct-83 10:02:04 EDT
Lines: 25
About a month ago, I asked people with more than a year of experience in both
emacs and vi to let me know which they preferred. I expected to get a few
responses that presented reasons why their favorite editor was better than the
other. Instead, I received 49 responses, most of which contained unbiased
comparisons of the two editors. The votes came in, as follows:
16 preferred emacs over vi.
9 preferred vi over emacs.
24 suggeted that it didn't matter or that they used both.
In general, the comments of the people that thought the editors equal made
the most sense to me. There were holes in a few of the arguments that favored
one over the other. That is, a few people suggested that an editor lacked
some function that I have used or read about in the documentation for that
editor.
I would like to thank all of the people that responded to my request. Sorry
that I was late in returning the results, but there was more to read than I
expected and I had less time to do it.
Curt Stephens