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Re: Text Editors and AGLL Coding
Posted By: Stephen, on host 204.216.157.222
Date: Thursday, December 10, 1998, at 21:26:36
In Reply To: Re: Text Editors and AGLL Coding posted by Sam on Thursday, December 10, 1998, at 20:13:47:

> > No it's not, it's "Oak Hill Vi", one of many vi clones I more or less grabbed randomly. Is vim share/freeware?
>
> Yes. If you decide to download this, let me know, and I'll send you my options file. There are a couple of default options in VIM that are really annoying.

Okay, go ahead and e-mail it to me. Maybe the reason VIM isn't working that well for me is because I haven't set it up right. It's highly possible.

>
> > Actually, I'm starting to like it. It was a MAJOR pain to get used to it at first. Having to go into "input mode" just to type something took forever to remember to do.
>
> I think the reason a proficient vi user can generally do things faster than someone proficient in any other text editor is that all the commands are right there in the central part of the keyword. The farthest you ever have to reach is the escape key. You never have to hit function keys, control, alt, the number pad, the arrow keys (you *can* use the arrow keys, but I like using h, j, k, and l to move), all of which take more time than the alphabetic keys, and you don't need to hop over to the mouse.

Oh yeah, now that I've begun to use things like "a" and "A" as well as other little commands, I can see how you could get very quick with it. But it certainly is a lot to learn, and very different to those of us raised on MS products (sad as it is, I have very little experience with anything but DOS/Win and Mac)...

>
> > ...the thrill of learning some supposedly really cool text editor is too much to resist...
>
> Heh. That's a rare but admirable quality. I applaud your geekiness.

Hey, you're talking to a freshman CS student. I may not have a wide range of knowledge (yet), but I certainly enjoy learning this sort of stuff.