Editor War

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The dispute over the best text editor is referred to as Editor War (in German "War of the Editors") . The two main rival parties were the vi and the Emacs .

From those involved, the favorite editor was and is treated with awe that sometimes borders on fanaticism . Many Flame Wars were fought between the various followers, in which each group praised its editor above all else and criticized the other. Most of the participants realized that the whole debate was meant to be ironic. There were similar wars over the various operating systems , programming languages and also over the code indentation style . Most of the editor wars were fought between the supporters of vi and Emacs, the two most popular text editors for Unix and Unix systems . The two editors have a very flat learning curve , so a user has to invest a lot of time to master the editor. Most Unix users only use one of the two editors, but many have at least mastered the basic functions of the other editor and are therefore able to criticize it.

Oddities

In almost every vi versus Emacs discussion, there is someone who notes that ed is the default editor on Unix.

Richard Stallman performing as St. IGNUcius, a Saint of the Church of Emacs

Richard Stallman founded the Church of Emacs (The Church of Emacs ) and named himself Saint IGNUcius . The church has its own news group alt.religion.emacs.

The vi proponents founded a vi cult ( Cult of vi ), after which they were referred to as imitators ("ape their betters") by Emacs supporters.

Emacs fans accuse vi of only having two modes: "beeps constantly" and "breaks everything". The vi supporters say that the many key combinations you have to use in Emacs give you RSI syndrome .

There are many different explanations of what the abbreviation Emacs means, for example "Escape Meta Alt Control Shift".

Quotes

"Emacs is a great operating system - it lacks a good editor, though."

"Emacs is a great operating system - but it lacks a good editor."

- Thomer M. Gil

“Using a free version of vi is not a sin; it is a penance. "

“Using a free version of vi is not a sin; it is a penance. "

- Richard M. Stallman

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Linux.com: Vi vs. Emacs (December 4, 2001)
  2. ↑ ES Raymond: The Jargon File: "holy wars"
  3. ↑ http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed.msg.html
  4. ↑ http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2006/04/unabridged-selective-transcript-of.html
  5. ↑ http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/gnuemacs.acro.exp.html
  6. ^ VI Lovers Home Page , accessed March 2, 2010.
  7. ↑ Quoted in Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software (2002) by Sam Williams; Ch. 8 St. Ignucius

Web links