Which editor?

keymoo · 01-29-2002, 03:23 PM

Hi,

I'm fairly new and I've been through the vim and emacs tutorials. I now need to start investing time in really learning one of these editors. Which is best? What are the pros and cons of each?

Should I choose either of those or go for something different like pico/nano?

Thanks in advance,
Keymoo

trickykid · 01-29-2002, 03:28 PM

i personally find myself in vi the most or vim.. just use to it after using it so much.

neo77777 · 01-29-2002, 05:01 PM

If you're fairly new to linux editors, use pico for editing configuration files you might tweak as it is very straightforward, and on the regular basis like reading the howtos downloaded from web in txt format or others use vi or emacs, emacs is more powerfull though. Keep learning advanced editors and eventually you'll switch to them, and all this pico type and save will be like a kindergarden alphabet experience.

dorward · 01-29-2002, 05:19 PM

I prefer emacs, its powerful, configurable, can deal with email and nntp, has the fantastic jde-mode and is doesn't use that weird mode switching thing that vi users seem to like.

finegan · 01-30-2002, 01:43 PM

I'm a big believer in Emacs...

Eighty
Megs
And
Constantly
Swapping

Or the other one... Emacs, pretty good editor, okay operating system.

If you just want a slim vicious editor, Vi is fun. If you want a lifestyle mangement system, Emacs can be handy too.

Cheers,

Finegan

acid_kewpie · 01-30-2002, 01:56 PM

personally i can't use either at all, i insist on using pico cos i'm lame and don't want to have to learn a load of annoying escape routines when pico is so amazingly easy to use.

trusouthrnplaya · 01-30-2002, 06:12 PM

I to like Emacs......I use it to do my C/C++ programming

TacKat · 01-30-2002, 08:48 PM

Somebody's going to have to stand up for Vim here. Personally, I enjoy the way it allows me to edit and create files without moving my hands one bit from their natural keyboard positions. It's a de facto standard on Linux systems, so if you learn how to use it you'll be able to apply that to almost any system.

isajera · 01-30-2002, 09:21 PM

i use vi, but i never recommend it to anyone new. once you get used to it, it's probably the best editor, but it's tailor-made from programmers and the like, not for ease-of-use. pico's probably the best command-line editor for newbs.

Syncrm · 01-31-2002, 02:43 PM

i've used emacs through most of my linux history. but i've recently been using joe in slack quite a bit. it's much more lightweight than emacs, and i hate how with emacs whenever you save a file it backs up the previous version of that file with a ~ at the end (i know i can disable this, but i'm lazy).

most editors will function the same though, in terms of editing text files.

el_felipe · 02-04-2002, 07:19 PM

I very often use vim, *never* installed emacs on my box because there's really no need, but I would recommend "mcedit": it's very easy and has syntax highlighting (at least bash for scripts... I'm not a programmer), perfect for a newbie.

Pico is a good choice too

el_felipe

Thymox · 02-05-2002, 11:03 AM

I'm going to throw in another option here: JED

If you're familiar with Microsoft's 'Edit' (possibly the best program they've ever written) then you'll find JED to be a piece of piss to use.

Quote:

I enjoy the way it allows me to edit and create files without moving my hands one bit from their natural keyboard positions

Erm, how exactly do others force you to move your hands away from the keyboard? (I've never actually used anything other than JED) Certainly JED (blatant plug there) will allow you to use the mouse to get to menu options, but you don't have to

therion12 · 02-05-2002, 12:37 PM

Quote:

personally i can't use either at all, i insist on using pico cos i'm lame and don't want to have to learn a load of annoying escape routines when pico is so amazingly easy to use.

Same here, i cant stand that either. I just use the simplist of editors without X and when x is running i just use kde's advanced editor or Kate (or XeD).

Thymox · 02-07-2002, 06:20 AM

I don't mean to be rude to anyone here who uses Vi(m), but ever since I started using Linux, the love affair between Linux users and Vi(m) has been quite apparent. Why? What makes Vi(m) so good over others?

Cheers.

dorward · 02-07-2002, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Thymox
I don't mean to be rude to anyone here who uses Vi(m), but ever since I started using Linux, the love affair between Linux users and Vi(m) has been quite apparent. Why? What makes Vi(m) so good over others?

Cheers.

http://chris.dci-uk.com/modules.php?...article&sid=12