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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mira.net.au!pumpkin.pangea.ca!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!howland.erols.net!rill.news.pipex.net!pipex!warwick!bignews.shef.ac.uk!kusogari From: kusogari@shef.ac.uk (Earl H. Kinmonth) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy Subject: Re: Betting on Unix Followup-To: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy Date: 8 Mar 1997 20:34:53 GMT Organization: Organization? What organization? Lines: 47 Message-ID: <5fsihd$oa7@bignews.shef.ac.uk> References: <5d3sr2$44n@nntp1.best.com> <5ddcvf$4dh@sun20.ccd.bnl.gov> <330a1d23.2419719@172.15.0.208> <5ef5c8$rgs@arktur.rz.uni-ulm.de> <5f6fhq$el0@faculty.ed.umuc.edu> Reply-To: ehk@gol.com NNTP-Posting-Host: kuso.shef.ac.uk X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.misc:163455 comp.os.linux.networking:71277 comp.os.linux.setup:101591 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:6259 comp.unix.bsd.misc:2757 comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy:56212 comp.os.os2.advocacy:272921 Robb Shecter (rshecter@faculty.ed.umuc.edu) wrote: : In article <5ef5c8$rgs@arktur.rz.uni-ulm.de>, : Stephan Pfab <pfab@mathematik.uni-ulm.de> wrote: : >edward@islandnet.com wrote: : There's something being missed here, though: Ancient programs like vi : and emacs that require the user to memorize a million keystrokes are just : too hard to use. Million? More like a couple of dozen max. Either that, or your version(s) of vi are more capable than mine. (MKS Toolkit for OS/2, SCO UNIX 5.0.2, SunOS, etc.) : After all, these editors are the means, not the end. They should be : blindingly easy to use, like a Windows program. Since when are Windows programmes blindingly easy to use? For me, use vi with [nt]roff and doing something like .IP tag number is a hell of a lot easier as a way to get a paragraph with a hanging indent than anything I've seen in Windows programmes. : Emacs, vi & kin are asking us to do the equivalent of memorizing everything : we've ever learned, word for word. Rubbish. An analogy. When you are driving and want to make a left turn, do you recall, via rote memorization, the instructions from the [state of your choice] vehicle code for "when making a left turn against opposing traffic"? Unless you have an IQ at a level that qualifies you for sheltered employment, if you've done it more than two or three times, you remember it. It becomes automatic. -- Earl H. Kinmonth, Kanji Users Service Operation (KUSO!), University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England S10 2UJ