Post #1220761

2025-11-22 17:54 UTC

@syllopsium @jb @felix I'm 46, I can count on 1 hand how many times I've needed to edit a file and only had vi to do it. Maybe down to a single finger, and even then I could have found another solution. That argument (which every mention of vi brings up) is too what-if to have value. It's no excuse. Why can't vi users just say they like vi and that's it?

Replies (3)

@syllopsium@peoplemaking.games 2025-11-22 22:42

@gwenhael @jb @felix I've had a quite small number of cases where it wasn't viable to install another editor in a hurry, and a number of cases where it was possible but vi was of course already there and it was easier to use it. Again, vi is *always* there. It has many advantages, but people don't have to take advantage of them. I'm not expecting people to know vi well, but it's useful to know esc :wq to write and quit, i to insert, and esc :q! to write without changes. Everything else is optional. A bit of arrow keys or hjkl are nice but hardly essential. Do I love vi/vim? Sort of. It has a lot of interesting and useful features. I would prefer it if it universally had cursor key support but that can't happen. I would also ultimately accept an 'open standards' editor that is available everywhere over something more usable but corporate created which isn't.

Open ##1220762
@jb@masto.hackers.town 2025-11-23 08:27

@gwenhael @syllopsium @felix 51. I had a couple failures that made me use ed. A few more where I had to do some editing abusing deeper file handing in the OS. And, yes I do like vi, the point of having vi keybindings in my IDE.

Open ##1220766
@Orb2069@mastodon.online 2025-11-25 20:47

@gwenhael @syllopsium @jb @felix I like VI, and that's it. ... And I've been in that situation twice in the last month. Maybe that's part of why I like it.

Open ##1220767