Vim or Emacs?

[Leeroy]

I've finally set up Ubuntu at home, and I'm starting to learn C++. I haven't done any programming since Uni, where I used nether Vi nor Emacs much, but rather a third program I can't remember the name of. It did automatic indentation and syntax highlighting, wich was about al I needed for the level of programming I was doing.

My one memory of trying to use Vi in first year goes something like this:

^C^C^X^X^X^XquitqQ!qdammit[esc]qwertyuiopasdfghjkl;:xwhat

But I understand if I took a bit of time to learn how it works, I wouldn't have those problems.

Emacs I remember being just as hard, but in a different way, not being able to figure out how to even save, though i understand there's probably versions of both out there now with nice friendly UIs, and windows-like toolbars.

So my question to those of you who might have experience in both is, if I'm to choose one to pretty much exclusively use, while being pretty unfamiliar with anything outside Windows (Way too long out of uni having nothing to do with Linux), what would be the better one to use, and why?

I'd learn both if I had time, and make my own choice, but I don't have much time in the evenings to play around, and just want to get stuck into the programming.

 

[esun]

I would say that Emacs is better suited to someone coming from a Windows background. The reason is that most text editors you're familiar with probably aren't modal like Vim (in Vim there is a command mode and an entry mode, which often confuses people). Emacs isn't modal, so it's generally easier to pick up than Vim. Both are very powerful, and both have lots of documentation, but because you don't have to worry about switching into different modes in Emacs, I would say that it's generally the easier one to learn.

 

[aCynic2]

This is very subjective. Editors wars are as common and heated as wars on religion, politics, child rearing philosophies, best chocolate, etc.

It's a preference issue. Wat ever works best for you, all others be damned.

 

[Nothinman]

Run through vimtutor to get the basics of how to work with vim.

 

[tfinch2]

Use vi. I've come across machines where Emacs is not there, but vi is always available.

 

[irishScott]

Nano FTW!

Simple, easy to use, gets the job done. For programming on any platform, I'd just go with eclipse, but that's me.

Also, IIRC Emacs doesn't support the "backspace" key for some reason. You have to use the "delete" key. Annoying if it's still true.

 

[Nothinman]

Nano FTW!

Nano's like notepad, it works for simple, once off edits but I couldn't stand to use it for any real length of time.

Also, IIRC Emacs doesn't support the "backspace" key for some reason. You have to use the "delete" key. Annoying if it's still true.

Works fine here. I was even surprised to find emacs happens to be installed on a few of the servers here. Now I have an idea of something I can remove to free up some space. =)

 

[Leeroy]

Well, since Emacs is set up by default with Ubuntu, I'll probably use that for the time being. If I get time in the future I might play around with Vim as well. Thanks for the info, anyway.

 

[Onund]

I prefer vi, so much so that I've mapped 'hjkl' in Opera to allow me to scroll around webpages.

One thing a co-worker once told me to try and convince me to use emacs was how most Unix prompts accept emacs style cursor shortcuts (ctrl-e, ctrl-a...) so learning emacs has the bonus side effect of teaching you Unix shortcuts.

 

[kamper]

Originally posted by: Leeroy
Well, since Emacs is set up by default with Ubuntu, I'll probably use that for the time being. If I get time in the future I might play around with Vim as well. Thanks for the info, anyway.

I don't mean to discourage you from using emacs or vi(m) if you want, but there are graphical editors too. Gedit isn't the world's worst editor.