The Birth of vi

lanc writes "Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun, tells the story of how he wrote the vi editor. The article at The Register delves into his motives, who instigated the project, and some of the quirks of leaving a 'gift to mankind'. From the piece: '9600 baud is faster than you can read. 1200 baud is way slower. So the editor was optimized so that you could edit and feel productive when it was painting slower than you could think. Now that computers are so much faster than you can think, nobody understands this anymore. The people doing Emacs were sitting in labs at MIT with what were essentially fibre-channel links to the host, in contemporary terms. They were working on a PDP-10, which was a huge machine by comparison, with infinitely fast screens. So they could have funny commands with the screen shimmering and all that, and meanwhile, I'm sitting at home in sort of World War II surplus housing at Berkeley with a modem and a terminal that can just barely get the cursor off the bottom line.'"

So let the flame wars begin!

[messju]

(I'm using Emacs, BTW.)

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[91degrees]

I hate them both.

I'm not popular amongst Unix users.

I've been using vi for so long...

[tuxlove]

I think in vi. When editing, commands just happen like thoughts. They are so ingrained in my brain I don't even remember the actual key sequences. When a vi newbie asks, "how do you do XYZ in vi?," I have to stop and think hard, because I don't even know the commands any more.

Vi is the ultimate editor, for one main reason. It's a modal editor, so commands can be mnemonic. With editors like emacs, you're always having to hit ^X before commands, or with MS word you're always having to lift your hand off the keyboard to move the silly mouse around. With vi, you don't need a steenking mouse. Your hands never leave the keyboard. And commands make sense and don't require that you hit some yucky control sequence to initiate.

I love my vi.

Re:No need for Emacs vs vi arguments

[Dionysus]

ed, baby, ed

Re:I've been using vi for so long...

[daddyrief]

I second you, I'll even double it -- I love my vvii :P

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[sniepre]

Hi joe. :)

Echoes of the past

[frisket]

Just confirms my {subliminal:emacs} unshakeable {subliminal:emacs} prejudice {subliminal:emacs} that vi had its heyday some decades ago.

The time for dual-mode editors (where you have to press something before you can begin to type, and then press something else when you stop typing) is long since gone, thank goddess.

From TFA:

[smittyoneeach]

finally there was ex

And there was much ejoycing.
(ay)

Re:I've been using vi for so long...

[tuxlove]

the most important thing I can remember I've done in my configuration was switching Esc and CapsLock

Now that's just plain wrong. The caps lock key is supposed to be mapped to ctrl! That's what any true Unix user would do, because it proves you learned Unix on a terminal designed for Unix with the caps lock in the correct place. PC users just don't understand.

I use both Vi (vim) and Emacs. Brief is better

[cdn-programmer]

Brief (by underware) is better.

I use both VI and Emacs and I just miss Brief. I thing is that the code was sold to Borland which last I looked became Impress (which isn't impressing me) and the code base is shelved. Can we OSS the code base?

I understand the issues. What I do not understand is why the HUGE advancements in VI for instance are so obscure that I use it at only a very primative level. Then we have Emacs and xEmacs.

I think we need some courses put together for kindergarten kids. The biggest issues is that most people are not willing to spend endless hours digging through unorganised and disjointed documentation. So we don't learn what our tools can do.

This is sad.

Here is what I think. I think editors have been around for 40 years at least. Some have horrible personalities. But the issue is not the personality... it is the person who loves the personality.

So perhaps we need to ask why I cannot ask Emacs to present the full "Brief" personality. I know that Emacs can do this. I've programmed a number of elisp commands. The issue then becomes.. how do we work as a community?

I am certain there are at least a billion answers. I kinda think there is a lot of code laying around that the authors of which pained over and they have "given up".

I do not know all the things VI can do. I wish I did. I wish I could rent a lecture that showed me. Numbers I got are that this costs $1000 a minuet.

Maybe this is why its not there.

Alas

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[zeromorph]

Why is parent not modded funny?

Would someone with mod points and a pico sense of humor mod him accordingly.

Re:No need for Emacs vs vi arguments

[diegocgteleline.es]

Yeah, ed is the best! [gnu.org]

"When I use an editor, I don't want eight extra KILOBYTES of worthless
help screens and cursor positioning code! I just want an EDitor!!
Not a "viitor". Not a "emacsitor". Those aren't even WORDS!!!! ED!
ED! ED IS THE STANDARD!!!"

Re:I've been using vi for so long...

[quintesse]

No no, it's the perfect first obstacle to weed out the people who shouldn't be doing any programming/writing on a *NIX system! A bit like entrance exams for universities.

Of course, the first thing I did when I was confronted with vi back in the 80s was write my own editor.

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[wakejagr]

screw you guys, I cat everything through sed, and I like it that way!

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[bsharitt]

I've deleted Linux distributions(I'm looking at you Suse) if they didn't include Nano or Pico in the default install.

Re:Recommended for new *nix users?

[lanc]

Depends on who you define as a 'new *nix user'.
If I gave a Kubuntu system to

Ahhh. Linux Is Not Unix Xohdontyouunderstandit

Not hard enough..

[B5_geek]

I haven't found vi or emacs to be hard enough.

That why I port edlin to every box I work on.

Obligitary joke

[zakezuke]

"My PID is Inigo Montoya. You kill -9 my parent process, prepare to vi. "

modded down in three, two...

emacs is for failures

[Anonymous Coward]

All code that doesn't fit an 80 column terminal was written by failures.

Richard Stallman's model for emacs

[Anonymous Coward]

here [timeinc.net]

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[It'sYerMam]

Thank you. Kate all the way.

The ultimate Unix editor

[Ambitwistor]

I see so-called "hardcore" Unix geeks advocating 'ed'. Nonsense! The ultimate Unix editor is "cat >filename". All the others are for indecisive wimps who don't know what they're going to write, or incompetent losers who make mistakes.

Join the Church of vi

[Chrax]

:w saves!

I actually want that on a t-shirt. I would do it myself, but I don't think my stenciling skills are up to the task.

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[Janek Kozicki]

I have a nano sense of humor, so I don't get it.

Re:I've been using vi for so long...

[Gnavpot]

Yeah, but which editor did you use to write the code for your editor?

He wrote another editor for that purpose.

Re:iI like vi

[Col. Bloodnok]

nstresting comment!:wq

Re:I've been using vi for so long...

[lysdexia]

commands, than to hit ESC and :.

It's not that you are correct, it's the fact that you used 'than' rather than 'then'.

It's gotten so bad around here that I'm starting to tense up when I feel a comparison coming on in a sentence.

(I have no karma anyway ...)

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[Ph33r th3 g(O)at]

But a nano sense of humor is 1,000 times as humorous as a pico one. Surely you got it!

Re:I've been using vi for so long...

[Anonymous Coward]

and since one editor must be written in another editor, something must have written the very first editor - therefore God exists

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[Ithika]

I don't gedit.

It's Turtles all the way down

[The Monster]

"I edit that I edit".

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[timeOday]

CLI will always have it's place... much like my half-retarded nephew who lives under the stairs... however as I for one can't wait for the day that intuitive interfaces rule the computing landscape with a soft, friendly fist!!!

Why are you using a text editor at all? Shouldn't you be doing all your programming via drag and drop [wikipedia.org]? And why does your post use text instead of more user-friendly pictograms [wikipedia.org]? Maybe you can find yourself a nice keboard-free computer [wikipedia.org].

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[h2g2bob]

"VI VI VI - the editor of the beast" - RMS

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[Anonymous Coward]

Now bring on the "car" analogies.

Okay: vi is a car, Emacs is a full cdr.

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[Dirtside]

sed?? You pussy! REAL men write the file once, through cat, and never have to change it, thus no need for an editor.

Let me take care of the ObSequenceOfReplies:

cat?? You pussy! REAL men open a file handle manually through /dev and type in hex!

/dev?? You pussy! REAL men write the data directly to RAM by tapping exposed wiring to the DIMM contacts!

wires?? You pussy! REAL men use huge electromagnets to manipulate the electrons inside the RAM directly!

magnets?? You pussy! REAL men push the electrons into place using sheer force of will!

I think that about covers it. Someone want to add a Chuck Norris variant?

Re:I've been using vi for so long...

[Gnavpot]

and since one editor must be written in another editor, something must have written the very first editor - therefore God exists

Are you claiming that editors are intelligently designed?

Re:I've been using vi for so long...

[Randle_Revar]

The common approach is simply to remap the Caps Lock key (a mostly stupid and useless key if there ever was one).

But, but, I thought caps lock was CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL!

(Typed with the shift key as my caps lock key is an additional ctrl)

Re:No need for Emacs vs vi arguments

[Ken_g6]

Naw, man, sed is way better than ed!

Real geeks use an editor that doesn't display anything at all. And with sed, I can screw up all the files in a directory at once, instead of one at a time with ed.

That's all I have to say, but I think it had to be sed.

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[Javagator]

Jesus saves with Ctrl-X Ctrl-S

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[Anonymous Coward]

The lame wars begun...

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[evilviper]

but why the hell do so few apps make use of the Function keys ?

They're used, just not for what you want...

I call them the "insert random garbage every time I reach too far" keys.

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[WilliamSChips]

:%s/Ctrl+X Ctrl+S/:w/
'Nuff said.

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[serialdogma]

force?? You wimp, true scotsmen -like Chuck Norris- need only threaten the electrons.

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[chromatic]

Why do Macs have keyboards then?

Re:I've been using vi for so long...

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you mean 2ivi<esc> ;)

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[that this is not und]

Why do Macs have keyboards then?

Because of the huge myriad of key-click sequences needed when your mouse only has one fricking button.

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[martinussen]

ed is the standard text editor!

Re:So let the flame wars begin!

[SmithSmytheSmith]

As someone else has pointed out, sometimes you simply don't have a GUI editor available. What are you supposed to do when you telnet into a machine and need to edit a file?

Uhm...copy the file someplace w/ a GUI?