'vi' is driving me crazy

[Kurt Wall]

On Mon, Dec 27, 2004 at 05:31:30PM -0600, Michael Hipp took 28 lines to write:
; Kurt Wall wrote:
; 
; >Whose "standard" keystrokes do you want to follow? MS's? Perhaps IBM's?
; >Maybe those from WordStar? Emacs'? This insistence on adhering to
; >keystroke or command standards is quaint, but based on a false premise.
; 
; Standardization is never quaint.
; 
; I'm referring to the standards used by Gnome and KDE. Oh, they're also 
; used by MS.

GNOME and KDE attempt (it would seem) to mimic the keystrokes used by 
MS apps. Since vi and ed predate all three by considerable time, if
any "standards adherence" is to be demanded, it is of GNOME and KDE and
MS to them. That, of course, is a silly demand, as is the requirement
that vi conform to some supposed standard.

I'm not unsympathetic to your frustration but unless you're prepared to
write your own text editor or learn how to use vi's "map" command to create
your own macros or modify vi source code to get obtain the functionality
you're looking for, arguing that vi should become "standards conformant" is
akin to demanding that the tides stop.

A more fruitful undertaking might be to learn how to use vi to its full
advantage.

Kurt
-- 
"Given the choice between accomplishing something and just lying
around, I'd rather lie around.  No contest."
	-- Eric Clapton