Open Source

Although I usually use Kate, I would really like to get into VIM. I have no problem with the modal syntax (I like that) but I do need to have different 'tabs' of files open. Also, I need to browse remote filesystems and bookmark directories on those systems. Kate does this wonderfully.

If you want to use Vim, vim also supports tabs (gvim or google's macvim at least). It splits well too.
People say gvim is not for real men, but if i have long editing sessions and wish to keep a couple of terminals free for running commands then gvim is great. Commands may be run using :! which I do use, but say I wish to keep alpine open for a while, or my ruby interactive shell.

Thanks, that is nice. The tabs are a big help, and I will see what I can do about browsing and bookmarking remote filesystems. I managed to ssh into a remote server and browse the filesystem (!: ssh), but I could not open files in the local GVIM instance from there.

vi supports tabs! Well, not really... but if you want to have a handful of vi sessions open in a session, there's always suspend, and then fg "vi filename" to switch to a suspended session

When I first started using UNIX, I learned to use ex for editing configuration files. I wasn't really involved in any complex scripting - mostly a glorified babysitter. As time went by and I needed to coax more than basic functionality out of UNIX, I switched to vi and never really looked back. I don't even think about the editor, really... it's more reflex than conscious choice. That's probably the best compliment that I can give any utility...

Now, I have vim installed on the Windows box here at work, as I've grown tired of all of the letters that started to crop up in notepad. yy, cw, hjkl, etc.

nb: I use SciTE on Windows to troubleshoot the odd grammatical issue with a complex script, or when I need to provide printed documentation of the script.

I forgot to mention that you can have multiple buffers in vim, and go to next and rewind. Besides splitting. this will work on telnet /ssh.

I currently also use "screen" - started just yesterday, one window/terminal and many sub-terminals with bash, vim, irb, links (with ruby documentation). Can see them all below on the bar, and move with a quick 2 key combo.

Screen really shines when you are telnetting/ssh'ing.

I've only ever used vi, so I'd have to choose that one. I have tried others I found online but with no success.

Not exactly sure what you mean but I'm using something called Dev-C++ right now and it compiles what I need to do so I haven't used vi recently. Problem is, I can't get it to run any of my programs, but no matter, I found that I can run it through command prompt (it only works on my Vista and not my XP).

export EDITOR=vi

My favorite is VIM in Linux and Windows and vi in other machines.

Thanks