vi or emacs?

hiddenknight821hiddenknight821 Member Posts: 1,209 ■■■■■■□□□□
icon_twisted.gif emacs is so confusing and evil! Especially when it's not installed on Solaris by default. Am I the only one that hates emacs here? I need to know if I am required to know how to use emacs if I apply for a linux admin position. I am reading Your Unix: The Ultimate Guide 2nd edition book, and the emacs editor is not consistent across various UNIX/Linux platform, which turns me off. I am thinking about skipping that chapter for good since i can't follow the book examples but if I have to know it, then I will give it a read.

By the way, I am not talking about text editors outside of the terminal. So OpenOffice and other craps do not count.
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Comments

  • YuckTheFankeesYuckTheFankees Member Posts: 1,281 ■■■■■□□□□□
    VIM all the way!
  • SettSett Member Posts: 187
    Never used emacs, but this reminds me of a joke:

    Q: How do you generate a random string? A: Put a fresh student in front of vi and tell him to quit

    /offtopic
    Non-native English speaker
  • paul78paul78 Member Posts: 3,016 ■■■■■■■■■■
    Oh wow. I am quite surprised to see the ratio of vi over emacs. Generally speaking, I prefer lightweight applications. But having used emacs for over 25 years, I just plain old prefer the flexibility of emacs.

    Where else can you find an editor that can solve the Towers of Hanoi puzzle, provide psycho analysis, and implement a full IDE. icon_thumright.gif

    As the saying goes - Emacs is a great operating system that also lets you edit files.icon_lol.gif
  • QuantumstateQuantumstate Member Posts: 192 ■■■■□□□□□□
  • undomielundomiel Member Posts: 2,818
    Eww to nano. Definitely vim for me, and I use gvim by default in Windows. I tried to give emacs a fair shot but I was already too corrupted by the vi way.
    Jumping on the IT blogging band wagon -- http://www.jefferyland.com/
  • UnixGuyUnixGuy Mod Posts: 4,564 Mod
    If you want to work as a Linux/UNIX admin, knowing VI is a MUST, because in times of troubles and troubleshooting, VI editor is the only editor available to you (if you're booting in a single user-mode to bring the system up for example).


    I see no need for Emacs unless you are a software developer, even then, chances are you will probably be using Java SDK or the likes.


    Knowing VI editor is a must. You can't work with Linux/Unix if you don't know VI, it must be the first thing you learn :)
    Certs: GSTRT, GPEN, GCFA, CISM, CRISC, RHCE

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  • hiddenknight821hiddenknight821 Member Posts: 1,209 ■■■■■■□□□□
    paul78 wrote: »
    Where else can you find an editor that can solve the Towers of Hanoi puzzle, provide psycho analysis, and implement a full IDE.

    Is it because of your sex life that you are going through all this? icon_lol.gif

    ^^ That wasn't from me, lol. ^^ It was the crazy doctor Eliza from the psychoanalysis. I didn't know all of those features exist in emacs, but I am still not convinced that emacs is more awesome than vi.


    Looks like vi (vim) wins. Since I was surprised to see paul78 actually liked emacs, I decided to give the emacs chapter a read, and I have reached to a conclusion after finishing the chapter yesterday. emacs sucks! The simultaneous combination key sequences and the fact that it's not installed on most UNIX/Linux system by default are deal-breakers. I like how I don't have to move my fingers much from the home row with vi when navigating through the file. Hunting and pecking for the meta key, which is the escape key in my case, can be a real pain. If I had to keep up with emacs, then there is no doubt I would develop Carpal Tunnel syndrome.

    Thank you everyone for your time sharing your opinions and the votes, of course. I really appreciate it.
  • JDMurrayJDMurray Admin Posts: 13,023 Admin
    I just switched from ed to ex. What's vi?




    icon_lol.gif
  • paul78paul78 Member Posts: 3,016 ■■■■■■■■■■
    It was the crazy doctor Eliza from the psychoanalysis.
    icon_lol.gif hey - that where I get all my advice and saves me a lot of money on medication.
    Since I was surprised to see paul78 actually liked emacs,
    I actually like vi too. I use vi so I can improve my keyboard proficiency at the game of "hunt". icon_cool.gif
    JDMurray wrote:
    What's vi?
    A fullscreen version of sed, I think icon_lol.gif
  • KenCKenC Member Posts: 131
    When I looked into what the recommended text editor was before I started to use it, responses similar to UnixGuy were common, so I figured why not go with that. At the end of the day, try a few out and you'll soon see which one you prefer (I'm sure you'd figure out the basics of the others you use less frequently should the need arise).
  • log32log32 Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 217
    definitely vi.
  • paul78paul78 Member Posts: 3,016 ■■■■■■■■■■
    UnixGuy wrote: »
    Knowing VI editor is a must. You can't work with Linux/Unix if you don't know VI, it must be the first thing you learn :)
    Yeah - I agree with you and @KenC. That's why I always encourage emacs users to learn to use evil-mode in emacs. icon_cool.gif

    For you emacs users out there - make sure that you know how to be evil here - Evil - Home - Open wiki - Gitorious icon_wink.gif
  • hiddenknight821hiddenknight821 Member Posts: 1,209 ■■■■■■□□□□
    JDMurray wrote: »
    I just switched from ed to ex. What's vi?








    icon_lol.gif

    Apparently I'm too young, too late, and too lame to get this joke. After reading that ed was the first UNIX text editor when the assembly version of UNIX was still around, I finally got your joke! icon_lol.gif This explains how sed filter command gets its name.

    paul78 wrote: »
    That's why I always encourage emacs users to learn to use evil-mode in emacs. icon_cool.gif

    OH! You and your Escape Meta Alt Control Shift! That's a lot of shift to press, paul78! icon_razz.gif
  • MickQMickQ Member Posts: 628 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Vi.
    But since Paul brought up programming...
  • paul78paul78 Member Posts: 3,016 ■■■■■■■■■■
    @MickQ - ^That^ was hilarious. icon_lol.gif

    @hiddenknight821 - btw - a bit of trivia - one of the reasons that I gravitated to emacs was because the early vi implementations that I had to use didn't support arrow-keys navigation. To move the cursor, you had to be in command-mode and use the 'vi keys'. There was no arrow key and delete-key support. Needing to press escape to move or delete a character used to drive me crazy. And if I was in command-mode and had to edit a character at the end-of-the-line - my biggest frustration was needing to remember to press 'a' instead of 'i'. I realize that vi has evolved but I was scarred by my experience icon_surprised.gif.

    Admittedly though, I tend to still use vi to edit simple configuration files. But I still prefer emacs in general.
  • onesaintonesaint Member Posts: 801
    Paul, the ADM3A keyboard got the better of you! There's all kinds of trivia in that kb (think ~ for home). I'm sure you know these origins, though.




    I think the only reason I am a VI user as opposed to Emacs is due to the fact that I was trained on VI first. Emacs is super robust which makes it a very viable tool. I think if I were to use one of the "other" editors like gedit, nano, etc. it would be Emacs due to its capabilities. With study time being short these days, I don't suspect that will happen anytime soon though.

    @JD vi will eat your ex and will hereby call it ":".:D
    Work in progress: picking up Postgres, elastisearch, redis, Cloudera, & AWS.
    Next up: eventually the RHCE and to start blogging again.

    Control Protocol; my blog of exam notes and IT randomness
  • shred805shred805 Member Posts: 12 ■□□□□□□□□□
  • JDMurrayJDMurray Admin Posts: 13,023 Admin
    onesaint wrote: »
    @JD vi will eat your ex and will hereby call it ":".:D
    I have long thought of the colon as the excrement operator. icon_lol.gif
  • varelgvarelg Banned Posts: 790
    Nano. Either one of those if it is on the objectives, otherwise...
  • hazizhaziz Member Posts: 21 ■□□□□□□□□□
    paul78 wrote: »
    @MickQ - ^That^ was hilarious. icon_lol.gif

    @hiddenknight821 - btw - a bit of trivia - one of the reasons that I gravitated to emacs was because the early vi implementations that I had to use didn't support arrow-keys navigation. To move the cursor, you had to be in command-mode and use the 'vi keys'. There was no arrow key and delete-key support. Needing to press escape to move or delete a character used to drive me crazy. And if I was in command-mode and had to edit a character at the end-of-the-line - my biggest frustration was needing to remember to press 'a' instead of 'i'. I realize that vi has evolved but I was scarred by my experience icon_surprised.gif.

    Admittedly though, I tend to still use vi to edit simple configuration files. But I still prefer emacs in general.

    You could also use Zile for quick and dirty config file editing if you feel emacs is too heavyweight for the job. Same Emacs interface and keybindings and the program is tiny (certainly much smaller than Vim).
  • hazizhaziz Member Posts: 21 ■□□□□□□□□□
    paul78 wrote: »
    @MickQ - ^That^ was hilarious. icon_lol.gif

    @hiddenknight821 - btw - a bit of trivia - one of the reasons that I gravitated to emacs was because the early vi implementations that I had to use didn't support arrow-keys navigation. To move the cursor, you had to be in command-mode and use the 'vi keys'. There was no arrow key and delete-key support. Needing to press escape to move or delete a character used to drive me crazy. And if I was in command-mode and had to edit a character at the end-of-the-line - my biggest frustration was needing to remember to press 'a' instead of 'i'. I realize that vi has evolved but I was scarred by my experience icon_surprised.gif.

    Admittedly though, I tend to still use vi to edit simple configuration files. But I still prefer emacs in general.

    You could install and use Zile for quick and dirty config file edits. Same emacs interface and key bindings in a much lighter weight package. I still use emacs most of the time though.
  • jmritenourjmritenour Member Posts: 565
    vi all the way. Sometimes, when I spend a lot of time working in *nix systems and then have to go do stuff in Windows, I catch myself trying to us vi commands in notepad. "Why the hell isn't :wq wor.... oh... yeah..."
    "Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible; suddenly, you are doing the impossible." - St. Francis of Assisi
  • undomielundomiel Member Posts: 2,818
    gvim for windows is what you are needing then. It's my text editor of preference on windows. download : vim online
    Jumping on the IT blogging band wagon -- http://www.jefferyland.com/
  • dontstopdontstop Member Posts: 579 ■■■■□□□□□□
    I have usually found:

    vim/vi: System Admins (Due to being installed on most systems)
    emacs: Programmers (features/community/addons etc)

    Thanks,
    jml.
  • W StewartW Stewart Member Posts: 794 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Vim all the way and if I can't use that then I'll take vi. I'll tolerate nano as well but there's no reason to use it as vi is always available and i'm not a noob.icon_wink.gif
  • W StewartW Stewart Member Posts: 794 ■■■■□□□□□□
    I looked at emacs once and dismissed it like the bald headed step child that I'm ashamed of.(sorry lack of sleep).
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