@syllopsium@peoplemaking.games
Post #1220762
2025-11-22 22:42 UTC
@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.
Replies (1)
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@jb@masto.hackers.town 2025-11-23 08:36
@syllopsium @gwenhael @felix I can’t think of any Linux distribution that has vi by default in its minimal install. If I have to get it installed by accessing the network, attaching a device, bootstrapping a new filesystem, it is not installed. QED.