The original vi editor

coolgreen1 · 05-22-2010, 04:43 AM

Hi,

What ever happened to the original vi editor made by Bill Joy? Is there any place to download it? Are the derivatives and clones the only remaining vi editors?

Any answers would be greatly appreciated.

linuxlover.chaitanya · 05-22-2010, 06:22 AM

Slackware still has vi which is most comparable to the original vi. Solaris is another which has that old vi. I dont know where to get it from though.

MTK358 · 05-22-2010, 07:48 AM

Arch uses the original vi.

But I think vim is much better.

I found that /usr/bin/vi was a symlink to ex. I changed it to be a symlink to vim.

catkin · 05-22-2010, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxlover.chaitanya

Slackware still has vi which is most comparable to the original vi.

Slackware's vi is a link to elvis.

coolgreen1 · 05-22-2010, 10:12 AM

Hi,

Thanks for all of your help.

gnashley · 05-22-2010, 01:17 PM

Traditional vi:
http://ex-vi.sourceforge.net/
Other Traditional tools (bourne shell, etc):
http://heirloom.sourceforge.net/index.html

linuxlover.chaitanya · 05-24-2010, 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catkin

Slackware's vi is a link to elvis.

Yes it is. But is more closer to the age ol' vi than vim. I use vim though.

Mr-Bisquit · 05-24-2010, 12:30 AM

The output of

Code:

ls /usr/bin

on OpenBSD lists vi.
Anyway, I don't know exactly which version is installed on the BSDs but I do prefer using this version over the Linux implemented version. This only applies to Free/OpenBSD and Debian/Fedora. Nothing else.

brianL · 05-24-2010, 04:20 AM

VI VI VI = 6 6 6. Save your souls, use Emacs!

catkin · 05-24-2010, 04:40 AM

AFAIK the original vi is not free, it still requires a UNIX licence hence the use of free equivalents of which elvis is the closest to the original. vi was OK, emacs was more`powerful, vim is better for me now.

gnashley · 05-24-2010, 06:11 AM

The heirloom version I linked to is adapted from the original solaris sources. The syntax and functionality is the same -it's just been updated to handle threads and other modern OS features. elvis is not the closest to the original.

catkin · 05-24-2010, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gnashley

The heirloom version I linked to is adapted from the original solaris sources. The syntax and functionality is the same -it's just been updated to handle threads and other modern OS features. elvis is not the closest to the original.

Thanks for the correction and sorry I missed it

jiml8 · 05-24-2010, 10:04 AM

I don't get why people want to use vi, or why it is the default editor to this day in *nix anyway. It reminds me very much of the old RT-11 editor that I spent a lot of time using. In fact, I rather suspect the RT-11 editor was derived from vi. It is primitive. It will run in a very basic console which can be an advantage sometimes, but then, so can emacs which is much nicer to use.

MTK358 · 05-24-2010, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jiml8

I don't get why people want to use vi, or why it is the default editor to this day in *nix anyway. It reminds me very much of the old RT-11 editor that I spent a lot of time using. In fact, I rather suspect the RT-11 editor was derived from vi. It is primitive. It will run in a very basic console which can be an advantage sometimes, but then, so can emacs which is much nicer to use.

I found Emacs very difficult to use when I tried it.

And I just want a text editor, not and OS within an OS.

linuxlover.chaitanya · 05-25-2010, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTK358

I found Emacs very difficult to use when I tried it.

And I just want a text editor, not and OS within an OS.

.