Question of the Day: Vi or Emacs? Why?

[redrose]

I need to learn a stronger editor than pico, and I don't know which of these to choose.

I expect to be working in a unix/linux system for much of my career.

Vi allows regular expressions, which could be very useful.

Emacs is extensible, which could be very useful.

Any thoughts?

Comments

[crwilley.livejournal.com]

Odd that we have almost the opposite perspective. redrose3125, just so you know where I'm coming from: the first editor I ever learned to use on Unix was ed, the line editor that vi is based on, and I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've used pico. It's been quite a while since I've used Unix regularly, and my preference when I'm just trying to accomplish my task at hand is typically for a somewhat clunky old tool I'm familiar with over a shiny new one I'd have to learn.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

:) vi is definitely the best editor for me, since I do troubleshooting and sysadmin stuff on a 30-system farm. But if I was, frex, writing programs, I would want something a little more helpful (vim, at least).

[redrose3125.livejournal.com]

I settled on vi, because of ubiquity, and the fact that emacs has an emulate attachment that makes it act like vi.

Your and crwilley's comments have been helpful! Thank you!

[redrose3125.livejournal.com]

I settled on vi, because of ubiquity, and the fact that emacs has an emulate attachment that makes it act like vi.

Your and MaryDell's comments have been helpful! Thank you!