VI all the way, its very programmer friendly... i usually create my core part of the program in windows on Dev-C++ bloodshed, and then compile/debug/finish up in VI.

i dont really like pico. probably because i used VI for the first month of UNIX use.

Glad to find this discussion since it deals directly with something that has been vexing me for a while.

I'm fairly new to unix and was disappointed when unix friends told me "just use vi" when I asked for the best way to edit and view files on our solaris boxes.

I have come to the conclusion that I need 2 editors in the unix world

Editor #1 - for use when I am writing code, scripts, etc. In other words editing that is going to take me more than a minute. For this I use Jedit

Editor #2 - Used for quickly editing, searching and viewing files. I frequently need to edit a single line in a file, or need to view the file or search its contents (I know about grep, but I like to see the results of my search in the context of the rest of the file). For Editor #2 I'm not sure what to use. I have almost come to the conclusion that I need to make peace with vi and just accept it, but I find it so frustrating that it takes me longer to check my cheat sheet to find the right commands than it does to actually do the editing. My requirements for Editor #2 are:
-Easily edit, view, and search text files.
-Reasonable amount of certainty that the editor is available. My job requires that I connect to different boxes and often su to a different userid. It is frustrating to learn to use a tool and then it is not available.
-Using the editor is easy to remember. I only need editor #2, two or three times a month. I feel like I am constantly relearning vi, and feel like I'm flying blind when I get lost between command mode and edit mode.
-Needs to run in the console, i.e. doesn't run in X, which for me takes too long to load. I think our network is slow and our boxes are distributed.
-I only need basic functionality, in other words I would trade ease of use in exchange for the advanced features in vi.

Can anyone make a recomendation for Editor #2 or do I need to make my peace with vi .

I started using pico and liked it a lot but a co-worker told me not to trust it as it truncates lines over 80 characters. Too bad since I really liked it. Anyone know if there is a fix or work around for this.

Basically I'm looking for something like pico or like "edit" from the dos prompt.

I am proud to say that I use TECO.

Not really.

I always use vim. Sometimes I'll mess around with other editors to see what they can do, or how they do the things they do, but whenever I want to edit anything, my hands automatically type "vim". That does mess me up sometimes when I am on a new or different system that does not have vim.

Even when I first started to use Unix-like systems I always preferred vi.

Notepad 2

A great little program. Its basically notepad with usefull coding tools (syntak schemes, bracket matching, line numbering) and some other features (small toolbar), etc. Its still small, doesn't need installed and is simple to use. Great for PHP, Perl, etc. (oh and its not actually 'Notepad 2' since Microsoft didn't create it - suprisingly they're yet to sue the person who did)

If its a non script language like Java or soemthing I'll use a program dedicated to that language. For HTML, CSS, and sometimes PHP I can use Notepad 2, but Dreamweaver is better if its on the computer I"m using.

If you want something that will behave (almost) the same everwhere and always be there then you'll probably need to make your peace with vi. When you eventually do so, you will probably not use #1 anymore, but rather an extended version of vi.

vi is massively powerful with very little footprint. once you learn vi you can edit a file faster in it than just about any other text editor.

if you are a UNIX admin, you NEED to learn vi. I have NEVER run across a *NIX system (or BSD) that did not have a version of vi. one time i typed #vi somefile on a system and it said "vi not recognized as an internal or external command" and I almost fainted. I had already begun editing the file, and had a bunch of garbage on the screen.

luckily, i typed it in again and it worked.

the more tricks you learn in vi, the better it will feel. a master of vi can open edit and save a file in vi before an opponent has even opened the file in notepad.

I am not a master of vi yet, but i hope to acheive that enlightened state of mind at some point in my existence.

I hope by constant vigilence to achieve moksha, or liberation from the wheel of life and existence to a higher plane in which the perfect use of vi is finally realized.

vi rulez.

IMHO Vi it's the best editor you can use.
That's because:

• It's fast
• It's straightforward (vi will do exactly what you said it do)
• It's extensible
• It's well documented
• It's powerful
• It's tiny
• It follows the UNIX philosophy: smaller is better
• It's the only editor I'm sure to find on every UNIX (or UNIX-like) system

I will always use vi
I love vi


Freddie