Re: Great SWT Program

In article <yfmdncLjq9N3smXbnZ2dnUVZ_sSlnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxx>,
Lew <lew@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
blmblm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
I wonder whether your idea of a text editor differs from mine.
I have almost no experience with typical Windows editors, so
I don't know how capable they are. Some of the things I like
about vim:

(*) IDE-like features such as syntax highlighting and automatic
indentation / reformatting of source code. I almost switched to
emacs some years ago just to get access to these features. Then
I discovered that vim had them too.

(*) Interoperability with other tools. I don't know how to say
this better, but some examples: vim makes it easy to import the
output of a command-line command (such as ls), or run selected
lines of a file being edited through an external command (such
as sort). "No one wants to do this"? I dunno. I seem to find
it useful pretty often.

(*) vimdiff, which shows differences between two files in a way
that's sometimes easier to grasp than the output of diff.

(*) Ability to record and play back macros. This also is
something I seem to find useful pretty often.

Just for the record, and vim is a fine product, emacs has these features also.
That is to say, it's integrated with the UNIX utilities to do these things.

In my C++ days I really enjoyed using gcc and gdb via emacs, which would let
me coordinate the source and the debug session.

No Editor Wars intended. vim is a fine product. The first thing a duckling
sees is its mother forever after.

Agreed on all counts! If it wasn't clear (but I suspect it
was), I did not in any way mean to imply that vim is unique in
having the features I mentioned. In some ways I regret having
imprinted on vi rather than emacs, because emacs has had more
years to accumulate useful functionality such as you describe,
not to mention that customization/scripting is done in Lisp,
which is IMO much cooler than vim's scripting language.

Again IMO, those of us who cling to these old-time editors would
be well-advised to put aside the old Editor Wars and band together
against the common enemy [*]. But just the other day I heard one
of my students pushing vim and slamming emacs, so apparently not
everyone agrees with me.

[*] Which I think I won't try to define, since an attempt would
almost surely stir up familiar trouble.

--
B. L. Massingill
ObDisclaimer: I don't speak for my employers; they return the favor.
.

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