What is Digg?162 Comments
- feshmania, on 08/11/2008, -5/+113VIm might be weird, but it makes me feel like I'm better than everyone else.
- inactive, on 08/11/2008, -2/+79Vi sucks at first and makes you wonder what kind of pretentious ***** like it. But after a little while you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
- ultrafez, on 08/11/2008, -1/+40http://xkcd.com/378
- t3hbagel, on 08/10/2008, -5/+38I prefer Nano or Pico for quick edits of stuff like /etc/network/interfaces or /etc/resolv.conf, but you still need Vi skills when working with a BSD (my server admin prefers OpenBSD).
- hashfail, on 08/11/2008, -3/+30I prefer nano because it tells me how to use it right away at the bottom of the window.
Realistically, I just need to sit down and learn how to use vim. - DteK, on 08/11/2008, -2/+26cant beat VIm when working via SSH. Once you understand how VI works, it is a great tool for programming or general word processing.
- Creeture, on 08/11/2008, -0/+23I can't with a clean conscience Digg you. You didn't give credit to the original author. Plagiarism is still bad. No cookie, no Digg. Unless you are Patrick J. LoPresti, then I apologize.
FYI, the original was
http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed.msg.html - ptFoe, on 08/11/2008, -8/+31Geany rocks
- rockwellpa, on 08/11/2008, -9/+29Kate is great! http://kate-editor.org/
- nedzeve, on 08/11/2008, -0/+20I think your sarcasm detector needs calibrating.
- nedzeve, on 08/11/2008, -1/+21Editor of the beast!
- ModernDayDarwin, on 08/11/2008, -7/+27And people say linux users have elitist tendencies...I don't know where they get those ideas from.
- trogdoor, on 08/11/2008, -11/+30When I log into my Xenix system with my 110 baud teletype, both vi
*and* Emacs are just too damn slow. They print useless messages like,
'C-h for help' and '"foo" File is read only'. So I use the editor
that doesn't waste my VALUABLE time.
Ed, man! !man ed
ED(1) Unix Programmer's Manual ED(1)
NAME
ed - text editor
SYNOPSIS
ed [ - ] [ -x ] [ name ]
DESCRIPTION
Ed is the standard text editor.
---
Computer Scientists love ed, not just because it comes first
alphabetically, but because it's the standard. Everyone else loves ed
because it's ED!
"Ed is the standard text editor."
And ed doesn't waste space on my Timex Sinclair. Just look:
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 24 Oct 29 1929 /bin/ed
-rwxr-xr-t 4 root 1310720 Jan 1 1970 /usr/ucb/vi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 5.89824e37 Oct 22 1990 /usr/bin/emacs
Of course, on the system *I* administrate, vi is symlinked to ed.
Emacs has been replaced by a shell script which 1) Generates a syslog
message at level LOG_EMERG; 2) reduces the user's disk quota by 100K;
and 3) RUNS ED!!!!!!
"Ed is the standard text editor."
Let's look at a typical novice's session with the mighty ed:
golem$ ed
?
help
?
?
?
quit
?
exit
?
bye
?
hello?
?
eat flaming death
?
^C
?
^C
?
^D
?
---
Note the consistent user interface and error reportage. Ed is
generous enough to flag errors, yet prudent enough not to overwhelm
the novice with verbosity.
"Ed is the standard text editor."
Ed, the greatest WYGIWYG editor of all.
ED IS THE TRUE PATH TO NIRVANA! ED HAS BEEN THE CHOICE OF EDUCATED
AND IGNORANT ALIKE FOR CENTURIES! ED WILL NOT CORRUPT YOUR PRECIOUS
BODILY FLUIDS!! ED IS THE STANDARD TEXT EDITOR! ED MAKES THE SUN
SHINE AND THE BIRDS SING AND THE GRASS GREEN!!
When I use an editor, I don't want eight extra KILOBYTES of worthless
help screens and cursor positioning code! I just want an EDitor!!
Not a "viitor". Not a "emacsitor". Those aren't even WORDS!!!! ED!
ED! ED IS THE STANDARD!!!
TEXT EDITOR.
When IBM, in its ever-present omnipotence, needed to base their
"edlin" on a Unix standard, did they mimic vi? No. Emacs? Surely
you jest. They chose the most karmic editor of all. The standard.
Ed is for those who can *remember* what they are working on. If you
are an idiot, you should use Emacs. If you are an Emacs, you should
not be vi. If you use ED, you are on THE PATH TO REDEMPTION. THE
SO-CALLED "VISUAL" EDITORS HAVE BEEN PLACED HERE BY ED TO TEMPT THE
FAITHLESS. DO NOT GIVE IN!!! THE MIGHTY ED HAS SPOKEN!!!
? - judicar, on 08/11/2008, -10/+29nano
- inactive, on 08/11/2008, -0/+19"Emacs is a nice operating system. If only it came with a decent text editor."
/obligatory. - Rudegar, on 08/11/2008, -2/+19vi ftw
- sysop073, on 08/11/2008, -0/+16I think your sarcasm detector needs installing
- humbled, on 08/11/2008, -0/+16None of the power editors are intuitive. Professional equipment usually has a large learning curve. My father is a recording engineer and you should see some of the interfaces he has to deal with. Seas of buttons and levers, with acronyms for labels and multi-hundred page manuals. The basic philosophy behind vi and emacs is the same: make hard things easier. This is different than the usual software design axiom of "make easy things simple and hard things possible." To make hard things easier, you automatically make extremely simple things harder. Back to the audio analogy, vi/emacs and editors like them turn your keyboard into a control surface. Don't expect to use these tools without significant learning investment. That's not what they're for.
- CATSCEO2, on 08/11/2008, -2/+18VI VI VI
- kraftj, on 08/11/2008, -1/+16vim. no contest.
- JQP123, on 08/11/2008, -2/+17" But after a little while you'll wonder how you ever lived without it."
Basically, instead of the software being programmed to deal with the user, the user has to re-program his brain to deal with the software. It's not too hard, almost anyone can do it but what separates the ordinary user from the geek --- the ordinary user is just annoyed by the time wasting effort while the geek is proud of his new found "skills". - JonForTheWin, on 08/11/2008, -2/+16vi for the win
- inactive, on 08/11/2008, -1/+14Agreed, though i can definitely see why VIM is better than other editors I'm not in the mood to learn how to use it.
- PleaseJustDie, on 08/11/2008, -0/+13CentOS, contrary to your belief, is actually covered by Linux, so you didn't need to single it out.
- fluxion, on 08/11/2008, -6/+19i use notepad on wine
- Krillin, on 08/11/2008, -9/+21i don't get it
- nedzeve, on 08/11/2008, -3/+14Text editors are programs that allow one to edit text documents like source code and data directive configuration files. They are tools for getting work done.
In this comic, 3 popular text editors are compared: EMACS, vim, and notepad.exe. People familiar with these editors will recognize the commonly held characteristics of each tool. An analogy is made likening text editors to drills.
EMACS, while very powerful, is considered "heavy". The program itself is quite large though very extensible. Some regard EMACS as an operating system in itself.
vim (and its predecessor vi), while much lighter weight that EMACS, is considered by many to be "weird" or counter-intuitive because of a keystroke interface that harkens back to a time in computing when hardware much much less than it is now, and documents were edited line by line. However, vi has been steadily improved over the decades, and is still one of the most powerful text editors available for those who take the time to learn it.
notepad is the editor that comes with Windows. It's not very powerful (the penguin is boring the hole manually), and since Windows costs money (unlike free/oss EMACS and vim) he laments that he paid for the privilege of using a simpler, albeit less feature laden tool. - pyxis115, on 08/11/2008, -1/+11The comments are fixed now, you can hit the thumbs up button now
- fluxion, on 08/11/2008, -1/+10it makes me feel like my fingers feel better than everyone else's
- OrangeTide, on 08/11/2008, -2/+11I mainly use nvi, or vim in a pinch. vi seems good if you modify lots of text files all day long. Like a programmer or sysadmin. But mostly I use it for the reasons of the first post, vi is everywhere.
- Elite1789, on 08/11/2008, -1/+10Truly, our responsibility to spread the Gospel of the Gnu is weighty.
Cleave to what is good. Remember the words the prophet Stallman
brought down from the Mount MIT, graved in Lisp on tablets of
crystalline lambda calculus.
Only this true: Emacs is pure.
All else is false.
Do not be misled by false gods like Vi, the Editor of the Beast.
Do not be seduced by Word, the Scarlet Woman of Babylon.
Do not be driven to madness by Xcode, the Blind Priest of the Children of Asherath.
When the wild winds of chaos blow, stay pure.
When the universe collapses in shards around you, stay holy.
When the gibbering hobgoblins of apostate Editors attack with shards
of broken syntax, seek the crystalline stillness within you.
Brethren, ensure that you (Meta-x-say-hallel-to-Emacs) daily for otherwise you will be lost.
When the Beast comes, only Emacs can save you. - harmil, on 08/11/2008, -1/+9To quote vim's splash screen:
type :q to exit
type :help or for on-line help
type :help version7 for version info
And of course, emacs has a whole tutorial built in that you get a link to when you run the editor. - Elshar, on 08/11/2008, -0/+7It might not be completely intuitive, but it does make sense. Plus, it tells you (And has as far as I can remember) how to use it when you start it up.
- trogdoor, on 08/11/2008, -3/+10I honestly thought it was well known enough that nobody would think it was mine.
- Grazfather, on 08/11/2008, -3/+10vi. Except when you're learning it and you think you're on insert mode and end up deleting half your code.
- amatijaca, on 08/11/2008, -5/+12vi is the world's greatest editor - just keep repeating that mantra every few hours, and eventually, you will believe it..
- bhigh24, on 08/11/2008, -2/+8gedit is my editor of choice
- ripter, on 08/11/2008, -5/+11nano for quick edits. I've only started to learn vim and so far I really like it.
- nedzeve, on 08/11/2008, -0/+64Gdd
:w
(fixed it for ya) - sysop073, on 08/11/2008, -0/+5Raise your hand if you didn't actually click the link and realize this isn't a debate about editors at all
* nomad3d raises hand - mrBitch, on 08/12/2008, -0/+5@humbled RE: "Back to the audio analogy, vi / emacs and editors like them turn your keyboard into a control surface. Don't expect to use these tools without significant learning investment. That's not what they're for."
That's the BEST explanation I have ever read for why vi & emacs are :
1. harder to "pick up" & use than notepad.
2. more powerful than any other text editor you have ever used. - stix213, on 08/11/2008, -1/+6VIm FTW!!!
- jokr004, on 08/11/2008, -2/+7agreed, but CentOS is still Linux
- bradleyland, on 08/12/2008, -0/+5A vi menu system? The universe would implode.
- sysop073, on 08/11/2008, -0/+5Wow, I can't believe you're getting dugg down, I didn't think anybody argued this. Emacs is way more powerful that vim, most vim users agree, the difference is vim users don't think a text editor should have so much stuff in it. Vim is good at text editing, and that's it; that's the way they like it
- cesclaveria, on 08/11/2008, -2/+7maybe it is because of years of practice and customization, but my editor of choice is always emacs.
The keyboard shortcuts are weird, but they become second nature after a while. - inactive, on 08/11/2008, -3/+8-1
- Loonacy, on 08/11/2008, -0/+5Actually it looks like he's using Notepad+, which is not quite Notepad.
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net
Apparently the comic artist had never heard of gedit or kwrite. - Daniel0, on 08/11/2008, -0/+4@harmil: vim has a tutorial as well.
- Narishma, on 08/11/2008, -0/+4It looks horrible from those two screenshots.
-
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