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It should come with VI stock damnit!

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:26 pm
by jcouzens
I was shocked after installing GentooX Home to NOT find a copy of VI. I felt like naked and alone I didn't know what to do. Please rectify this. No Linux is complete without it. You don't have to go all out with vim, just gold ole vi will suffice.

Keep up the great work.

Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2004 10:27 pm
by nobspangle
Linux is not complete untill you remove VI
VI is hideous, there is no reason for a program that complex. If you want it just emerge vim but nano does everything you could need.

I think Shallax agrees with me on this one so don't expect any movement on the VI front.

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 11:48 pm
by Arion
I have to agree with jcouzin on this. Linux without vi, is like Windows without Internet Explorer. Its second nature to any experienced linux user(with the exception of those emacs freaks), when editing a file to use vi.

I can't believe nano is even being compared to vi. Comparing nano to vi, is like comparing roller skates to a Rolls Royce. To put it simply: vi, especially vim, is a mature, powerful editor. Nano isn't. Anything nano can do, vi can do better, and once you learn a few basics, vim is just as easy to use as nano.

I'm not saying to remove nano. It's good for newbies to have a simple editor they can use out of the box, without learning commands. It helps to ease the learning curve, but once they experience the power of vi, it's very hard to go back.

Emacs might be an okay compromise between those requiring the power of VI and the simplicity of nano.

Please don't turn this into a flamewar between emacs and vi. I recognise that emacs is a powerful editor, but I hate haveing to use the alt/meta key too often.

The deps for vi are met in gentoox. I copied the vi binary over from my mdk install to gentoox, and it works nicely. I had to do it though, because nano was driving me insane.

I sincerely hope the omission of vi was an oversight. Taking account of some of the other stuff that has no place on a home distro, the it looks like gentoox is aimed for, I think vi would be a harmless enough addition.

Having all that said, I have vi now.

Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 6:03 pm
by Dante_Ali
Have to agree with parent - vi (or better yet, Vim) needs to go in for convenience's sake.

OTOH, it isn't included on the Gentoo LiveCD's either - and it's puzzling why they haven't seen fit to include it after all this time.

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 10:36 am
by ShALLaX
nobspangle wrote:Linux is not complete untill you remove VI
VI is hideous, there is no reason for a program that complex. If you want it just emerge vim but nano does everything you could need.

I think Shallax agrees with me on this one so don't expect any movement on the VI front.
Hahahah damned right ;)

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 7:20 am
by waxling
boo, hiss...

Unix/linux without vi or vim is blasphemy.. an admin that knows not vi is not an admin!!

the first thing a sane gentoo user will do is "emerge vi" or "emerge vim"

dammit :)

You've never admin'd a system till you've done using bash in "vi" mode.

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 9:49 am
by cory1492
isnt vi the reason they call it "bash" as in "bash your head on a brick wall" ?

lol, I know what bash really stands for (bourne again shell or whatever)...

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 12:53 pm
by ShALLaX
o.O

Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 5:18 pm
by Bucko
This is down to personal preference, if Shallax put VI in everybody would be saying make this default make that software default.

Everytime I've used VI it's confused me, NANO does the trick :).

Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:02 pm
by nobspangle
Bucko wrote:Everytime I've used VI it's confused me,
Tell me about it, I always have to get someone to hold my hand when I'm forced to use it, and then I'm like, "I have to press what? j? I only want to move down the page.

The only thing worth knowing about VI is that if you type

Code: Select all

:q!
it exits.

Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 4:56 am
by orochi
nobspangle wrote:
Bucko wrote:Everytime I've used VI it's confused me,
Tell me about it, I always have to get someone to hold my hand when I'm forced to use it, and then I'm like, "I have to press what? j? I only want to move down the page.

The only thing worth knowing about VI is that if you type

Code: Select all

:q!
it exits.
emerge sync && emerge vim
vimtutor

Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2005 3:41 pm
by Poida^
I must admit its a pretty bad habit for some experienced users
The first thing I did when I installed gentoox was type
vim (filename)

then I was like.. whoops,
vi (filename)

whoops again...
nedit (filename)

and then I remembered the ShaLLax interview and he prefers pico/nano
so finally,
nano (filename) -- Success!

and while in there I was pressing escape :wq! :lol:

Next thing I have to do is install vim
shouldn't take too long I did it on my other shells.

I don't mind whats default with install but it does feel weird not having vi in linux, its been common in all distros I've used so far.
Its a matter of preference for users though, and taking that extra time to set up your shell with your fancy prompt and personalized environment settings also includes setting up ur default editor even if it requires you to install it.
nobspangle wrote: The only thing worth knowing about VI is that if you type

Code: Select all

:q!
it exits.
I like my quick ZZ (shift+zz, save and exit)