Tyler Zesiger <mailing-lists / zesiger.com> wrote:
> 
> Someone once told me to "RTFM" when I couldn't figure out how to work a 
> *nix text editor. I felt insulted, that he insinuated that *I* was the 
> one with the problem, not the text editor. In fact, text editors are 
> dang near the oldest software technology we have. I've used dozens, 
> maybe even hundreds of them, and not once have I ever had to "RTFM" 
> before starting to use it, because they've all adopted the same 
> intuitive UI conventions that have worked well for a decade - Except for 
> *nix editors. They're 20 years out-of-date.
> 
> If you try to argue that typical *nix editors are in fact easy to use 
> (vi, et al), and it's "obvious" how to use them, as many *nix people do, 
> maybe you should step out of your geek-bubble and try learning something 
> completely new - maybe something that's also poorly designed and 20+ 
> years out of date.

Just had to comment on this bit. vi isn't easy to *learn*; it's easy to
*use*. You can do a lot of very powerful stuff with surprising ease, far
more so than in the more userfriendly editors. emacs too, espcially if
you're an octopus :) There's a *reason* people still use them over more
standardised editors, and 'geek cred' isn't it.

martin