emacs or Vim?

[MC Morrado]

I was wondering what the beef was between text editors. In this case: emacs versus Vim. We have the church of emacs and then Vim.

 

Do you use emacs or Vim? If so, why is it your favorite? What are the advantages and disadvantages? All I know about emacs is that programmers described it like something surreal, religious even.

 

(image source: somebody emailed me it, some guy I know in college)

[Skiiwee29]

<-- Moved to Programs, Apps, and Websites -->

[Dutch_Master]

I'm using Nano  

[spacepickle]

24 minutes ago, Dutch_Master said:

I'm using Nano  

I chisel my code into clay tablets and compile it with a mortar and pestle

[Ha-Satan]

I use Vim. I learned it when I took Unix scripting ages ago and I can't be bothered to re-learn anything else.

[Ha-Satan]

25 minutes ago, Dutch_Master said:

I'm using Nano  

[Ha-Satan]

1 minute ago, spacepickle said:

I chisel my code into clay tablets and compile it with a mortar and pestle

Makes me think of:

 

 

"Remember paper?" lol

[RONOTHAN##]

I use vim because it's preinstalled in almost every Linux distro (or at least vi, which has similar keybinds), so it's the one I bothered to learn for doing text editing. I know Emacs has its advantages, but I barely use a fraction of what vim has to offer, so I don't really care and so the fact that vim has as much of an install base as it does means it was more worth learning. 

 

In a world where most people use Notepad.exe, Notepad++, or if they need a command prompt based one nano, this debate is relatively niche and IMO not really worth caring about. Use what you like, and who cares what everyone else uses.

[Kilrah]

Tilde.

[porina]

I've only ever used emacs because it was what I was shown how to use on a Sun workstation. At the time it handled work e-mail and was also where I wrote code. This was a VERY long time ago.

[Crunchy Dragon]

31 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

I use vim because it's preinstalled in almost every Linux distro (or at least vi, which has similar keybinds), so it's the one I bothered to learn for doing text editing. I know Emacs has its advantages, but I barely use a fraction of what vim has to offer, so I don't really care and so the fact that vim has as much of an install base as it does means it was more worth learning. 

 

In a world where most people use Notepad.exe, Notepad++, or if they need a command prompt based one nano, this debate is relatively niche and IMO not really worth caring about. Use what you like, and who cares what everyone else uses.

I'm more or less in the same boat.

 

I use nano where possible because I learned to use it first and that's what my brain defaults to type in any Linux terminal when I need to edit a text file, but I use vi in the cases where nano isn't installed.

[PirateCoffee]

Vim has a big learning curve but to be honest it's great. I've been using vim for a few years now and it's not too bad once you get your head around it.

[Dat Guy]

15 hours ago, MC Morrado said:

Do you use emacs or Vim?

 

My $EDITOR is sam, actually. However, GNU Emacs is my e-mail client, my Usenet reader, my IRC client and my programming IDE.

The problem with Vim is that it wants me to press "I" so I can "insert" things. However, I much prefer an editor that lets me open it and just start writing, so Vim is not for me.