*BSD News Article 37224


Return to BSD News archive

Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!rkb55989
From: rkb55989@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Rafal Boni)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc
Subject: Re: How UTTERLY Amazing! (Was Re: FreeBSD vs NetBSD)
Date: 28 Oct 1994 09:54:08 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 59
Message-ID: <38qho0$76g@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>
References: <358o3g$p95@umd5.umd.edu> <BLYMN.94Oct19193600@mallee.awadi.com.au> <38h8d5$e19@CSOS.ORST.EDU> <38hk8s$dn2@orion.cc.andrews.edu> <38k228$ksm@henri.mindspring.com> <38kvfu$b1f@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> <CyD1C8.AFo@indirect.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: uxa.cso.uiuc.edu

wes@indirect.com (Barnacle Wes) writes:

[...]

>Jeez, this is one that emacs-lovers hate to hear.  If you don't
>like it, change it!  It's *customizable*!  And yes, if you wish to
>do that to yourself, GNU emacs-19 has a vi-mode.

	Well, I'm glad I tickled a sore spot 8-), but I just wanted to 
	see if this was available before getting and building EMACS for
	my home BSD system.  Also I don't quite think implementing a VI
	mode in EMACS lisp is an exercise for the ELISP knownothing, and 
	hence probably not something I'd *just customize* on compiling it.

>Note that on *my* emacs, that awful sequence for 'compile this
>program in a window and let me get on with my editing' is the
>thoroughly confusing and difficult to remember F1 key.  Press F2
>to debug.  Press F5 to read mail.  Oops, sorry, thought I was a
>voice-mail system there for a minute!

	Well, on MY VI, the same 'compile...' thing happens to also be bound
	to F1.  F2 - F5 are various shortcuts for RCS/CVS types of stuff, and
	F6 does the window-cycling thing.  I don't read mail in VI, because
	that would sort-of defeat the MH paradigm, although I can say that this
	probably WOULD NOT work well with VI..

>: 	[Note: I started out hacking on a DOS box and got way too attached to
>: 	Brief.... If only I could beat some sense out of Crisp, I'd give up
>: 	BOTH VI and EMACS and use that... Unfortunately, I've had a hell of a 
>: 	time building crisp in more than one environment, and I've yet to see
>: 	the X interface work.... ]

>I've got bad news for you, then.  If you were using Brief, you *were*
>using Emacs!

	Well, if you notice by my statements above, I'm not a religious
	zealot about VI, I just simply find that I can't remember EMACS
	long enough to be able to use them before having to call up the 
	help thing again.... Control-This Meta-That F5 means very little 
	to me... FOr that matter, why on earth does something like quitting
	have to be ^X^C? It's just too much to remeber to get out of the
	damn editor [note: I know in VI I might have to type ESC then :wq
	or :q!, but the ESC is at least always consistent, and most other
	VI keys are pretty mnemonic]

	As for Brief being EMACS, it's EMACS on a substantial diet with a
	sane set of keybindings.  It's also got a rather nice interface
	and DOES NOT grab all system resources within 8 miles of it's 
	invocation for the next week.  Brief, for example, works pretty well
	on 640K of DOS memory that it's so lovingly [damnger, will robinson:
	sarcasm alert] limited to.

	Where is the Brief-EMACS link?? If Brief is really EMACS, maybe I'll
	be able to find a Brief emulation more for EMACS that works well. I'd
	even USE EMACS then...

>	Wes Peters

							--rafal