TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Looking for a (Free? Cheap?) text editor From:sphilip <philstokes03 -at- googlemail -dot- com> To:Richard L Hamilton <dick -at- rlhamilton -dot- net> Date:Sun, 4 Nov 2012 10:07:33 +0700
The main reason I use vi rather than emacs is ubiquity. Believe it or not, there are still some odd distros out there that don't have emacs built in. (I got caught short on a job once when the system didn't have emacs. After that, I switched to vi).
I agree with everybody else. Learning either of them is an investment of time. It is also pretty much a non-transferable skill (i.e., knowing vi won't help you with emacs or anything else, and vice versa), and isn't worth it unless you're going to use them a lot (because you'll never benefit from their advantages until you learn them in quite some detail).
On 4 Nov 2012, at 00:03, Richard L Hamilton <dick -at- rlhamilton -dot- net> wrote:
> I'm glad there are still a few people around old enough to use, let alone remember, emacs:-).
>
> I started using vi, then I worked on a project where one aspect was writing emacs macros. My boss said we had to "eat our own dogfood" and use emacs. I've never looked back. Not having used vi seriously since 1987, I can't comment on its current state, but when I last used it, it was far less capable than emacs, though considerably easier to use (for most folks). I suspect that at this point any preference is strictly a question of religion:-).
>
> I agree with Peter that emacs is not something you learn for a one-shot project. I've used it for 25 years and I still look things up and I have a cheat sheet I use all the time.
>
> BTW, org mode looks pretty cool; thanks for the pointer.
>
> Best Regards,
> Richard
> -------
> XML Press
> New from XML Press:
> Learning Author-it
>http://xmlpress.net/publications/learning-author-it
>
>
>
>
> On Nov 3, 2012, at 3:40 AM, sphilip wrote:
>
>> I used to use emacs, but switched to vi when I realised the latter was even more arcane (and even more powerful).
>>
>> ;)
>>
>> Best
>>
>> Phil
>> http://applehelpwriter.wordpress.com
>>
>> On 3 Nov 2012, at 17:23, "Peter Neilson" <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net> wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:38:46 -0400, Richard L Hamilton <dick -at- rlhamilton -dot- net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I know this dates me pretty severely, but there is very little you can't do with emacs.
>>>
>>> Whenever I see one of those questions about, "How do I replace all this hairy text with that hairy text, and do it all these hairy places, except in the spots where the moon is retrograde?" I immediately think of emacs, and then usually do not recommend it to others. Emacs is built into my fingers, and has been for quite some time. Its major shortcoming is that Richard Stallman failed to predict, nigh 40 years ago, the keybindings that would be chosen by the developers of Unix shells and of MS-DOS.
>>>
>>> I think that emacs provides the handiest way to write regexp and test it without harm. Its macro facility provides a means to avoid bothering with regexp in most circumstances, too. Emacs is Turing-complete. There truly is little you cannot do.
>>>
>>> Still, you cannot adopt emacs casually for a one-time use. I'd liken it to intending to become Roman Catholic just to taste the Eucharist.
>>>
>>> Fortunately my mind is sufficiently warped that I can shuffle between (DOS) C-C, C-X, C-V and (emacs) M-W, C-W, and C-Y with little cussing. Credo in unum emacsum. (That would be Gnu Emacs 23, right now.)
>>>
>>> Emacs "org mode" (look it up) appears to be the leading edge of text-based development, avoiding all proprietary formats, and editable with ANY text editor.
>>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>> Writer Tip: Create 10 different outputs with Doc-To-Help ― including Mobile and EPUB.
>>>
>>> Read all about them: http://bit.ly/doc-to-help-10-outputs
>>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>>
>>> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as philstokes03 -at- googlemail -dot- com -dot-
>>>
>>> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
>>> techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>>>
>>>
>>> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
>>> http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.
>>>
>>> Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com
>>>
>>> Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
>>
>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> Writer Tip: Create 10 different outputs with Doc-To-Help ― including Mobile and EPUB.
>>
>> Read all about them: http://bit.ly/doc-to-help-10-outputs
>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>
>> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as dick -at- rlhamilton -dot- net -dot-
>>
>> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
>> techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>>
>>
>> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
>> http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.
>>
>> Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com
>>
>> Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Writer Tip: Create 10 different outputs with Doc-To-Help ― including Mobile and EPUB.
