'vi' is driving me crazy

[Michael Hipp]

Bill Campbell wrote:

> On the other hand, vi is found on pretty much every *nix system on the
> planet while other editors aren't.  Taking the time to learn it, and even
> be comfortable with it can make life a lot easier if one has to work on
> multiple systems.

Yes. We've covered that point already. It is OT to this thread.

> There aren't all that many things to learn to do the basic things to edit
> text files (which is about all the ``friendly'' editors can do -- basic
> things).  The mode problem isn't a problem if one just hits the ESC key a
> couple of times -- it will then be in command mode.

I think the authors of Kate, Nedit and Jedit might take exception to the 
charge that their friendly editors can only do basic things. You've 
obviously never used any of them.

The mode problem is very much a problem. Having to constantly switch 
modes to do the most basic things is very inconvenient and quite 
*dangerous*. Don't even get me started on that lunacy that is "visual" 
mode. When I type printable characters, I expect them to show up on the 
screen rather than randomly scrambling my file because I forgot I had 
switched to command mode to do a simple replacement, save it, do a 
cut/copy or some other basic action.

Michael