XEmacs

1. dired-mode
2. elisp
3. indentation
4. multiple-buffer, multiple-frame
5. customizable ** 2
6. gnuclient

less

1. /
2. somewhat like vi, in case I need to use vi in the future
3. lightweight
4. runs in terminal

I'll second these emotions. But more important to me than gnuclient and dired-mode are:
1. shell
2. shell-command-on-region
3. apropos-command, and info

There's more, but these are the main features that, to my admittedly limited knowledge, aren't to be found in any of the .*vi.* editors.

I appreciate the desirability of .*vi.* for its small size and ubiquity, but for a fast loading, small editor I use JOE (jmacs, actually).

-- Frag.

• Vim exists both on Windows and Unix
• Vim has a built-in perl API and can't execute Perl code on text...
• Ultraedit on windows is also a common choice among programmers

But I don't know how to run my Perl scripts from inside of vi. Sometimes I fire up a shell inside vi and run my Perl script inside the shell, but that is a lot of extra typing.

Back when I used to use the Borland C++ editor I was able to run Perl scripts from inside the editor. There must be away to do so with vi. If anyone knows how then please clue me in.

Update: It is in fact easy to run a perl script while vi is editing it. You simply type the following EX editor command at the colon prompt:

!perl %

!./%

In the same range, I'm rather fond of the filtering feature of vim (actually, I think it's a feature of all "standard" vi's).

If you prefix the ! with a range (i.e. "%" for the whole buffer, or ".,147" for current line thru line 147, or "'a,'b" for marker a thru marker b, etc.), vi will pipe the given range into the external command that follows the bang, and replace it with the output of the same command.

Very useful for one-liners, IMHO. Example: you're editing an SQL file with zillions of INSERT statements, and want to insert a COMMIT every 500 lines, lest the rollback segments chokes under the load:

:%!perl -ple "print 'COMMIT;' unless $.\%500"
[download]

You need to escape the modulo operator, lest vi interpolates into the current buffer name

The down side is that you don't see error messages. Unless maybe you say 2>&1 (haven't tried that yet, though

--bwana147

You might find the :make feature of vim very useful: You can set makeprg to "perl\ -cw\ %" and use afterwards :make to check the program. This aproach offers you some nice features:
• It's easier to type
• You get the error-messages in a special buffer and can step through it. Read about this feature in :help quickfix
Another real good feature, btw :)
--
use signature; signature(" So long\nAlfie");

I can't imagine not using Vim on all three of the platforms I use: Linux, Solaris and Win2K.

Steve Oualline's excellent Vi Improved -- Vim is a thorough overview of Vim, as well as a great introduction to Vi in general. I dig it even more than the tarsier book.

xoxo,
Andy

%_=split/;/,".;;n;u;e;ot;t;her;c; ".   #   Andy Lester
'Perl ;@; a;a;j;m;er;y;t;p;n;d;s;o;'.  #   http://petdance.com
"hack";print map delete$_{$_},split//,q<   andy@petdance.com   >

I'm sorry you hate the question. Many people hate the question and are tired of people who argue about it. I am asking "Why do you use what you use?" Is it easier to use or do you use it because you always have.

my @a=qw(random brilliant braindead); print $a[rand(@a)];

Links to the home pages for the editors are nice but not useful. I could (and have) looked at the home pages before. I'm interested in what the monks use to do their perl coding.

my @a=qw(random brilliant braindead); print $a[rand(@a)];

There has been a poll about it... and yes it turned up as one of the first entries of a search :)

Greetz
Beatnik
... Quidquid perl dictum sit, altum viditur.

• Multi Platform: I personally like to use the same editor on Windows, OS/2 and any Unix.
• Definitely syntax highlighting: I've read once that emacs can't use embedded syntax (don't know if that's still true) - Vim can do that quite easy.
• You can set options depending on the file you edit. Like different (auto)indenting on different files (like mails, code, ...) or even skeleton files when opening new files. This is really one of the features that I like most.
• Vim has blockmode (rectangle copy/cut/paste/insert). I use it e.g. for commenting out a whole block (insert/delete # infront of a block).
• Bookmarks are possible through the viminfo file
• You can jump from subroutines through files and have open multiple files with multiple windows
• Just found through google: ftpbrws.vim: A script that lets you edit a file through ftp

Feel free to contact me if you have questions about vim :)
--
use signature; signature(" So long\nAlfie");

Hi alfie,
just a few remarks:

Definitely syntax highlighting: I've read once that emacs can't use embedded syntax (don't know if that's still true) - Vim can do that quite easy.

Although there is a mode which enables multiple major-modes per buffer this is one of the major FIXMEs in Emacs.

You can set options depending on the file you edit. Like different (auto)indenting on different files (like mails, code, ...) or even skeleton files when opening new files. This is really one of the features that I like most.

If I get you right that comes down to use this or that for perl files and this and that for C files etc. That is achieved with the major-mode concept in Emacs

Vim has blockmode (rectangle copy/cut/paste/insert). I use it e.g. for commenting out a whole block (insert/delete # infront of a block).

No problem: i got mark rectangle on M-Mouse1 and kill and paste on M-M2 and M-M3 ... :-) (and yes, it works with keys, too)

Bookmarks are possible through the viminfo file

Emacs has various ways for that: save-places is just automatic (open file, are at last position) recent-files (stores the N last visited files), desktop (see my post above), and I have read about bookmarks but have never used them

A script that lets you edit a file through ftp

Emacs' answer: EFS (does just that)

Disclaimer:
yeah OK, this is like showing off, I just wanted to state that these features are (mostly) available with emacs, too. I'm not trying to convert you! I'll never take part in the Holy Editor Wars. If vim is fine for you, use it.

*grin*

Regards...

Stefan

If I'm on a *nix box, it's emacs. If that's not available, I use vi. On Win*, I use TextPad. If it's a very short script, I'll use cat or notepad. You say you are not looking for an editor holy war, but your post is full of comparisons between /vim?/ and emacs. What exactly are you looking for here? Work with whatever makes you the most productive and happy, I say. Don't worry about what others use, except from a curiosity standpoint.

Partially curiosity. I am fine using vim (much of the time I do use vim because emacs is not on the box I am looking at). When I have my choice I use emacs because it has features that make programming more enjoyable. I know there are some features in vim that people enjoy - but what are they?

I don't want a flamewar, but I would like to bring to the surface, features which make programming perl easier, be it Nedit, or Crisp, or whatever.

my @a=qw(random brilliant braindead); print $a[rand(@a)];

----
Coyote

THE major features that I don't know from other editors are:

• dabbrev
  Usually bound to M-/ but for me it sits on Shift Space. This takes the chars of the word you have typed so far and searches from the current cursorposition in the whole buffer if it finds a match, then expands. If the current buffer yields no result all buffers are searched. I consider this _extremely_ usefull!
• speedbar
  The speedbar is the major navigation tool with a little problem. The problem is that it usually recognizes files only from ther suffix (which gives a problem when your perl script doesn't have a name that ends in .pl). Anyway if you got speedbar-get-focus on an easy to reach keystroke (for me: C-c C-s) you hit that, get a new frame (whose dimensions are -of curse- customizable). Then you can open a list of functions, global vars, whatever (depends on the programming language you're in) that you can choose (Cursor on it and return or middle mouse button) and jump right to that position.
  This noavigation is waaay cool! (BTW: I wrote a little defun that toggles the open/close-state of a file in speedbar, so you can use space to open or close a function list with one key instead of using + and -. Look at my lisp defuns; site in german, code documented in english...)
• I can write my own extensions (and can profit from those written by others ;-). If I really need this or that feature, well, I write it. I am no lisp-coder but the little I know is enough for most of the things I want to do.
• Emacsen are very well documented! And you can live inside Emacs for hours and hours, reading the description of variables and functions, browsing info docs and so on...
• CVS support is built in but I never used it til now
• and don't forget the desktop package: in every directory you can have a session file which contains the names of all open files. If you start a new (x)emacs in that directory it can be set up so that if automatically restores your old session

OK, that's enough for the start, isn't it?

Regards...

Stefan

~Animal

I am currently trying to learn emacs and fumbling along with the basic commands. I think for the things that vi does, its quicker for me to get things done (as can be said for perl) in vi. My fingers don't have to leave the home row whereas in emacs you have to keep reaching over to hit the escape key (I'm sure that could be solved by remapping or something, but I haven't got around to that yet, or what I'd want to remap it to).

So why I'm I learning emacs? Because emacs and vi are not really comparable. Vi is a great text editor, Emacs is (as I understand it) a great development environment.

BTW, I find syntax highlighting distracting even on HTML files where a decent job is done of it, and completely annoying when editing perl.

For another perspective, see this (Hey, I used to use edlin! :).