On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 10:17 AM, Jan L. Peterson <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, 20 Apr 2010 06:54:12 -0600 > Stuart Jansen <[email protected]> wrote: >> The biggest advantage to learning Vi is it's the only editor >> guaranteed to always be installed on every *nix box. You should at >> least know the basics.
Sounds like a good idea to me. > I agree with Stuart on this point. Everyone who plans to use a unix or > unix-like (a.k.a. linux) system ought to learn the basics of editing > with vi. I used to say the same about ed, but at this point I'm not > sure if ed is even included on all systems. (You haven't lived until > you've fixed a corrupted passwd file with ed in single user mode... or > even better with while, echo, and read.) The worst I've done so far was get two computers stuck in a package dependency web terror, to where KDE wouldn't start up or even come close to reaching the login screen. At the same time (...If one computer goes haywire, do the exact same thing to the next one! Oops). I was trying to apt-get upgrade from KDE 4.3 to KDE 4.4, because even I know how much faster it is to use the command line than to open up big heavy programs. But I learned how to use aptitude (trying to fix things at the root prompt). It wasn't until a couple days later that I found out what apt-get dist-upgrade was for, which fixed it. > I think it's useful to learn the basics of both editors. Someone > already posted a vi quick reference (or was that a vim quick > reference?), so let me give you the same thing in emacs. Start emacs. > Type "control-h" followed by "t". Now you're looking at the emacs > tutorial. Read through it. It will tell you everything you need to > know. Cool. > Oh, and for the uncertain, it's pronounced "vee eye", not "vye"... and > never "six". Vim, I believe, is pronounced to rhyme with "whim" (but > I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong :-). > > -jan- I've always wondered if it's "vee eye," "vee," "vye," or what. At least Emacs has an intuitive name (like "ee max," right?). :) Timothy Wood -------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. ___________________________________________________________________ List Info (unsubscribe here): http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
