Which version of VI (vi, nvi, nvi2, vim, nvim) are you using and why?

[scottro]

Yog-Sothoth, for some reason, even though your post was first, I didn't see it till this morning, so as I said to daridro, I learned something, so thanks.

 

[gotnull]

Why vim over vi?
vim brings features that makes life more comfortable:
_ code highlighting (really helpful visually)
_ plugins (I tend to not use these but it can be useful sometimes)
_ a visual mode that is actually "visible" and improved
_ interactive word completion
_ tabs
_ color themes
_ command menu
_ vimdiff (that thing is dope)
_ usage as man pager (convenient as hell)

Why vim instead of neovim?
I've tried it, it's more polished out of the box than barebone vim indeed, but other than that for me the advantage stops there, it's probably because I do not need those improvement for what I do with an editor. Hardcore coder might actually need these but not me.

 

[fjdlr]

Not exactly a vi clone, but I'm switching from Doom Emacs with vi keycodes to Helix.

Hi
I've tested and like Helix; the only problem is that I haven't found color support in my .tcshrc file (in the themes). Unlike Vim, which colorizes my file
All scripts are perfectly interpreted and colorized except for the syntax of my .tcshrc file.
Also, all *.ini files

 

[Mjölnir]

neovim because it creates a *.orig on the 1st modification of a file. And I also use nvimpager, so I have less/more with syntax highlighting. But IIRC I had to tweak one of the standard configuration knobs. Maybe it was setting PAGER in .cshrc (alternatively in login.conf(5) or /etc/csh.cshrc)?

 

[drhowarddrfine]

I use vim for the additional features it has that vi doesn't.
I use vi when I hit return before I hit the 'm'.
Or when I'm on a system that doesn't have vim. Everything has vi.

 

[yog.sothoth]

Yog-Sothoth, for some reason, even though your post was first, I didn't see it till this morning, so as I said to daridro, I learned something, so thanks.

With pleasure

 

[hruodr]

nvi because it is there and I got used to it.

Main editor emacs, then nvi. I am unhappy, but they are widespread and hence I suppose will not spoil files.

 

[yog.sothoth]

I use vim for the additional features it has that vi doesn't.
I use vi when I hit return before I hit the 'm'.
Or when I'm on a system that doesn't have vim. Everything has vi.

The funniest reason I've ever read

 

[yog.sothoth]

nvi because it is there and I got used to it.

Main editor emacs, then nvi. I am unhappy, but they are widespread and hence I suppose will not spoil files.

Not satisfied? With Emacs, I understand... but not satisfied with vi is outrageous!
Seriously, no satisfaction with either one?

 

[serjsk8]

I use vi for the following reasons:

• vi is always installed by default. Due to the nature of my work, I often connect to servers with very minimal configurations and no internet access.
• vim has syntax highlighting, which is very convenient. But I want to keep the habit of using vi, because I never know what kind of server I might end up on tomorrow.

You get used to the good things way too quickly

 

[rbranco]

vim has a nasty security vulnerability with no CVE yet:

oss-security - [vim-security] Vim tabpanel modeline escape affects Vim < 9.2.0272

To disable, add this to your ~/.vimrc:

set nomodeline

To check if you're vulnerable, run from vim:

:echo &modeline

It should be 0.

 

[drhowarddrfine]

.......A funny line but it doesn't work here so I removed it.

 

[hruodr]

Not satisfied? With Emacs, I understand... but not satisfied with vi is outrageous!
Seriously, no satisfaction with either one?

When you, for example, want to search and substitute including line breaks, then emacs and sam are superior to vi.

vi is good for writing config files, mails, and such things.

With sam I have the problem of the background color, and that the GUI is not unix, but plan9,
and I am used to unix style. But you can call it without GUI from nvi.

 

[dorijan]

Vi. Plain text plain tool.

 

[AlfredoLlaquet]

I'm using nvi to write my crumbs and my novels because I find it to be a good exercise for my brain, having always used modeless editors before.

Additionally, I prefer not to use any spell checker. It's the only way to improve my spelling and grammar. I review them when I've finished the crumb or written a long enough chunk of the novel.

 

[kpedersen]

Additionally, I prefer not to use any spell checker. It's the only way to improve my spelling and grammar. I review them when I've finished the crumb or written a long enough chunk of the novel.

Similar. I write without spell check (I find it breaks my flow). Then I push the whole thing through aspell. The task of jumping through and [accepting] or [ignoring] spelling mistakes is actually quite useful as part of the review process.

 

[yog.sothoth]

When you, for example, want to search and substitute including line breaks, then emacs and sam are superior to vi.

vi is good for writing config files, mails, and such things.

With sam I have the problem of the background color, and that the GUI is not unix, but plan9,
and I am used to unix style. But you can call it without GUI from nvi.

Do you speak about '/' ?

 

[hruodr]

Do you speak about '/' ?

In emacs, you can insert Control chars in a string with C-q, you can seach for a string containing e.g. line breaks.
You can substitute a string containing such chars with other containing also such chars.

 

[yog.sothoth]

In emacs, you can insert Control chars in a string with C-q, you can seach for a string containing e.g. line breaks.
You can substitute a string containing such chars with other containing also such chars.

Maybe I don't understand very well, but: %s/mystring\//other\//g

 

[JohnK]

Maybe I don't understand very well, but: %s/mystring\//other\//g

I imagine they are talking along the lines of (for Vim[1]):

https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Search_across_multiple_lines

[1] Not sure `\_s` is supported in vi(1)