ubuntu server 11.04

[Tom H]

On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 5:02 AM, Avi Greenbury <lists at avi.co> wrote:
> Tom H wrote:
>> On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 3:57 AM, Avi Greenbury <lists at avi.co> wrote:
>> > Janne Jokitalo wrote:
>> >
>> >> But it generally considered wiser to instruct using nano, which is
>> >> (also?) installed by default, and has no stripped-down version
>> >> anyhow.
>> >
>> > There is no vim by default, either - only vi.
>>
>> Of course vim's installed by default. In fact, there's probably no
>> "real" vi - unless vim.tiny is vi.
>>
>> Give "update-alternatives --list vi" a try...
>>
>
> Well, yes. vim.tiny is installed, and it's more accurate to refer to
> that as 'vim' than 'not vim'. But what I meant was that by default, if
> he tries to do
>
> vim /path/to/file.xml
>
> As in the earlier message, he will be met with words to the effect of
> "Vim cannot be found, try installing one of these packages" followed by
> a list of vim-* packages It must, again by default, either be invoked
> as 'vi' (which might as well be vi) or 'vim.tiny'.
>
> In short, if someone is asking how to edit a text file in a terminal, I
> don't think part of the how-to should include:
>
>  - a tutorial on vi
>  - a tutorial on vim
>  - an explanation of how to change the default editor
>  - an explanation of how to invoke vim.tiny as vim rather than vi
>
> Because none of those are necessary. It should explain how to use the
> perfectly workable (unless you already know some other editor, in which
> case the question is moot) nano.

In Natty/11.04 Server, both vim.tiny and vim.basic are installed by
default and both "vi file" and "vim file" launch vim.basic.

Feel free to have a pseudo-religious debate of the superiority of this
editor over another with someone else. I only posted in this thread to
correct what you said earlier, namely "There is no vim by default,
either - only vi.".