OT: Pro and Con of vim [was: Good GUI Text Editor]

[Martin Pitt]

Hi!

Bill Stoye [2004-10-07  5:46 -0700]:
> They also provide, for those with more experience 'emacs'(GUI) and
> 'vim'; each of those has, for me, a steep learning curve. For instance I
> can't even exit vim:  "type  :q<Enter>   to exit"
> But it doesn't, so I have stuff to learn, 'emacs and 'vim' are on the
> list but there is so much to learn, I'm afraid they are on the back
> burner. From my reading about them, they are the power users tools.

Being a vim-only typer, I confirm that vim is a power-typer tool. It
does have a steep learning curve (it took me several hours to learn
and customize it, and a few weeks to get really acquainted to it), but
since I spent 80% of my daily computer time (about 12 hours) in an
editor, a few hours of learning quickly pay out since I can edit way
more efficiently than e. g. with nano or mcedit. The other thing is
that I do not need to learn new keybindings and GUIs for everything; I
use vim to program code, write LaTeX, write mails, write all other
text stuff, edit config files, view changelogs, code patches, etc. and
I customized vim to be my command center for everything (automatic
LaTeX and code compiling etc.).

On the other hand, if you spend only very little time with modifying
ASCII text, them vim is not for you. The learning effort is constant,
but if it saves me literally years. But if it saves you only a few
hours in your life, then you should take an easier editor.

If you are a power typer, the following articles may interest you:

http://www.troubleshooters.com/lpm/200212/200212.htm
http://www.oreilly.com/news/zenclavier_1299.html

Martin
-- 
Martin Pitt                       http://www.piware.de
Ubuntu Developer            http://www.ubuntulinux.org
Debian GNU/Linux Developer       http://www.debian.org
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