Vi vs. emacs (or: "The holy war")
That's how it all started:
- ChristianSandor - 11 May 2003: You dare to ask: vi is better than emacs! or does it have anything like the dot command (=redo) with one keystroke?
- OtmarHilligesOld? - 05 May 2003: Yes Bub it has... (define keybindings just as you want) -- and always rember "Luke the Lisp will be with you"
- MartinBauer - 06 May 2003: vi? emacs? Go get Hydra! -- "Woah it's the future! I must have been frozen for months!"
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Otmar's car: a discarded police van.
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This definitely calls for a discussion!
(several issues taken from
this page).
- what have vi and emacs in common (only a short list):
- old school editors.
- Unlimited: undo- and redo-buffer, line length, file size
- Extendable with macros and external scripting interfaces
- both tty and gui versions (gvim, xemacs) available
- work on all platforms (although xemacs starts faster than vi on my Powerbook ...)
- what is the real difference?
- Emacs is modeless, Vi has modes (text insertion mode and command mode)
- why is vi superior?
- Modeless editing implies: Commands have complicated syntax and hard-to-type keystrokes, since a limited number of keys are available for commands.
- Modeful editing implies: Many more keystrokes (~90) available for commands. Users tend to become very proficient because the fingers can stay in their normal positions almost all the time.
- True, switching modes takes some keystrokes that are unnecessary with modeless editors. But because of the overall higher speed (see last bullet), this does not really matter. Also usually you do a cluster of commands in insert mode first, and a cluster of commands in command mode later on. So switching modes is not done very often.
- Vi was designed to write PROGRAMS, with all other types of file possible. Emacs was designed to write TEXT, with all other types of file possible.
- Vi is much smaller and loads much faster; it will fit on a diskette while Emacs quite definitely will not.
Still not convinced? Take a look at this. I especially love "delete paragraph"
VI EMACS
-- -----
Right one column k ^f
Right one word w Esc,f
Left one word W Esc,b
Next sentence ) Esc,e
Previous sentence ( Esc,a
Save file :w ^x,^s
Delete paragraph d} Esc,x,kill-p[TAB],[RET]
Edit a new file e[fn] ^x,^f,[fn]
Exit :q or QQ ^x,^c
Save and Exit ZZ ^x,^s,^x,k,[RET]
Repeat last search n ^s,[RET]
Paste from clipboard p ^y
Delete 7 lines 7dd ^a,Esc,7,^k
Undo u ^x,u or ^/
Change a letter to "x" rx ^d,x
Go to line 6 :6[RET] Esc,<,Esc,5,^n
Esc,x,goto-l[TAB][RET],6[RET]
--
ChristianSandor - 10 Jun 2003
