Re: Vim vs. Vi clones

Aaron W. Hsu <arcfide@sacrideo.us> writes:

> How about you? For you, why are you using your chosen vi clone or Vim?
> Why choose it over some of the other variants out there?

I have installed these vi-related packages to my Debian GNU/Linux:

nvi nvi-doc

vim vim-doc vim-latexsuite vim-scripts
vim-addon-manager vim-gnome vim-nox vim-syntax-gtk
vim-common vim-gui-common vim-runtime vim-tiny

In addition I have installed from source code that original vi that
Gunnar Ritter maintains. I modified its Makefile in order ease
installation with GNU stow:

http://ex-vi.sourceforge.net/
http://www.gnu.org/software/stow/
http://iki.fi/juhtolv/hacks/C/vi/

My shell (zsh) finds them this way:

% whence -savc vi
/usr/local/bin/vi -> /usr/local/stow/ex-050325/bin/ex
/usr/bin/vi -> /usr/bin/nvi

% whence -savc vim
/usr/bin/vim -> /usr/bin/vim.nox

% whence -savc gvim
/usr/bin/gvim -> /usr/bin/vim.gnome

When I log in to my X Window System, session managament restarts gvim,
if it was on when I logged out. I use vim most of the time when I work
with terminal emulator or through SSH-session.

But I use both GNU Emacs and Vim. Nowadays session management can handle
GNU Emacs, too. It depends on situation, which one is better. Vim and
Gvim is good at least for configuration files, human languages, and
shell scripting. My MUA called mutt uses vim. For LaTeX- and
ConTeXt-code I prefer GNU Emacs with AUCTeX. Sometimes I edit also
shell-scripts with GNU Emacs. And so on. I really hope some day
multi-tty-functionality of GNU emacs becomes stable enough, so I can use
it.

I do not use nvi and plain vi very much. But if I ever need them, they
are there.

When I am root, I use just vim and never GNU Emacs or gvim. Vim has
syntax coloring practically for every possible configuration file and
when it does not, I can find more of them from script repository of
www.vim.org.


--
Juhapekka "naula" Tolvanen * http colon slash slash iki dot fi slash juhtolv
"Boku wa ongakuka dentaku katate ni. Tashitari. Hiitari. Sousa shite.
Sakkyoku suru. Kono botan oseba ongaku kanaderu." Kraftwerk