is "vi" worth learning in 2022?

fernandel said:
Theorem: vi is prfect

Proof: VI in roman numerals is 6. The natural numbers less than 6 which
divide 6 are 1, 2 and 3. 1 + 2 + 3 = 6.
So 6 is a perfect number. Therefore, vi is perfect.

-- Arthur Tateishi
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Probably there is another proof, but I agree that vi is perfect. Seems that when computers were slow and resources limited, people wrote almost perfect applications. "C" is also almost perfect language. Not much to improve.
 
Back when I was a programmer (not a developer, dammit!) I used vi. We were expected to. I came to appreciate just how powerful it is. But now I tend to use nano: I have no idea why, I just got into the habit. I still now how to use vi, but I'm not as proficient as I once was.

Who remembers edlin? That has got to be the worst editor of all time!
 
I build base WITHOUT_VI=yes. Just because I install editors/vim everywhere anyways. (And in case of total emergency, I can fix stuff with sh(1), cat(1), ed(1) and sed(1), although this of course is nothing to enjoy :cool:)

No, vi is not "perfect". vim is a massive improvement (while keeping the basic concepts).

I don't even assume the concept is "perfect". It's just the best we have. My theory: Any software trying to target an "intuitive" interface will likely flatten the learning curve a lot, but at the same time restrict efficiency.
 
zirias@ said:
I don't even assume the concept is "perfect". It's just the best we have. My theory: Any software trying to target an "intuitive" interface will likely flatten the learning curve a lot, but at the same time restrict efficiency.
Click to expand...
Some things in vi are extremely efficient in term of keystrokes and time consumed on the UI. For example simple search. In vi, /<search string><enter> adds only 2 keystrokes to the actual search string. Search is very important in the editing process. One cannot do it more efficiently with any other editor. Note that just /<etner> repeats the last search. It cannot be any better...

[few minutes later]
Tried nano also with the same file, but I feel somehow paralyzed...
 
Since the thread covers 2022 and we have 2024 - was it worth it?
 
I think possibly the OP lost interest in FreeBSD. Last seen 2023.

(In many ways, that is why I liked the original banners "Son of Beastie", etc, so you can see who the classic oldies are!)
 
Thread started Dec. 29, 2022... IMHO, that makes it applicable to 2023, rather than 2022... ;)

Yeah, I know that it's fashionable to review the prior year before it's over :p
 
We have only 14 pages, it should be easy enough to fill 2010 more pages about whether it will be worth it before the end of the year.
 
In the old days, we were told to be prepared to use ed or ex (they are still there in /rescue) in case of system crash or something that enforce us to try to recover the system. Now, we have a screen editor, vi in /rescue. We are advancing. You may get rid of vi someday, but for now, I prefer my fingers accustomed to vi. Though nowadays, if the system does not boot properly, you may boot a live filesystem from a USB drive and use whatever text editor you like...
By the way, I started to use emacs at first but fell to use vim these days. I want to hear what emacsen think while young people use vscode (maybe it should be another topic).
 
Hiroo Ono said:
In the old days, we were told to be prepared to use ed or ex (they are still there in /rescue) in case of system crash or something that enforce us to try to recover the system. Now, we have a screen editor, vi in /rescue. We are advancing. You may get rid of vi someday, but for now, I prefer my fingers accustomed to vi. Though nowadays, if the system does not boot properly, you may boot a live filesystem from a USB drive and use whatever text editor you like...
By the way, I started to use emacs at first but fell to use vim these days. I want to hear what emacsen think while young people use vscode (maybe it should be another topic).
Click to expand...
No need for vscode, Notepad is good enough to edit .ini and .reg files.
 
kpedersen said:
"Is notepad worth learning in 2040?"
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I believe any apps which requires learning to "use" is not at all worth using in Windoze world. I feel notepad does not require learning to use. ;)
(Excluding data, programs, ... created/edited on it.)

There's so many "not for use on Windoze" apps, though.
 
T-Aoki said:
There's so many "not for use on Windoze" apps, though.
Click to expand...
Now that, I'd quibble with... Wireshark is definitely available on both UNIX and Windows, GCC has a Windows port, so do lots of GUI toolkits... Yeah, there's this little matter of binary compatibility of the executables (can't copy them from one system to another and expect it to run).

Going the other way, Windows has lots of software that is not meant to be used on UNIX - Office365 and Photoshop come to mind. Yeah, there's ways to make that awkwardly available on a UNIX anyway (via a browser), and UNIX does have comparable alternatives handy.

Given that, I just fail to see what UNIX-specific software would be unavailable on Windows. I mean, seriously, even Microsoft has WSL available if you like, so UNIX userland is possible to play with on Windows.
 
Argentum said:
I believe x11/plasma5-plasma, x11/mate, x11/gnome3 and many other things do not run on Windows...
Click to expand...
QT toolkit (which KDE is based on) is available for Windows. So are lots of other toolkits...
It's quite possible to do UNIX development and even compilation on a Windows platform:
1711644695257.png

editors/kate can be perfectly available on Windows, too... Yeah, it takes a bit of work to set it up. Yeah, VSCode is far easier to get on Windows...

But back to the topic of this thread - I still think VI is worth learning these days... as in, knowing that cheat sheets do exist on the Internet, and being able to use those cheat sheets. Windows doesn't have a command-line editor (AFAIK), so if the Windows GUI breaks to the point of being unavailable, your only real option is to boot a recovery disk with a different copy of Windows and use that to slurp up any valuable data off the disk before wiping the disk clean and reinstalling. UNIX is more flexible than that, it does give you the option to fix a simple error with a command-line text editor like VI.
 
Reading again from 1 to 15 page… And what may I say:

BASE rule:
TOOLS DEPEND ON WORKFLOW

FIRST rule:
Use STABLE SOLUTION that have a owner/maintainers with obligations, big installbase, few known bugs, big community, a lot of educational materials, and enthusiasts to run the solution forward.

LAST rule:
Not to be lazy to review on REAL CASES the new coming solutions, try to see potential in it.

This 3 EASY RULES not only help You to doing perfect current work, but be one step ahead from other professionals near You.
 
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