Open Source

Back on university days , I used pico.But currently I use mostly emacs for programming and vim for text editing.

i agree with the whole "use the tool to do the job" but there are still plenty of text editors that are naff.

For example, mousepad is great for text files that don't need any highlighting, etc etc. on the other hand, it only allows you to have one file open at a time i think (same as good old TextEdit on the Mac OS) which is really irritating. Also, it (and all the other XFce software) couldn't find my printer in fedora 6, even though all the GNOME programs could.

On the other hand, mousepad opens quicker than gedit, so if i just want to edit and save one file, it's preferable. Of course i do think everybody has to know some basic vi commands for when they ssh somewhere. you can't rely on a GUI all the time.

Vi is the most popular editor for two reasons, as I see it.
1. (And this reason is respectful) vi can be found in almost all environments.
2. (This reason should not exist if we were honest and industrious.) When people get accustomed to something that works for them, they don't want to learn something new.

I started with vi and found a lot of features and capabilities that satisfied all my needs.
Then I installed emacs just of curiosity and I fell in love with it, exactly like I fell in love with unix several years before that.
Somebody said that emacs is not just an editor: it is way of thinking. I think one can do more with emacs than with vi, and certainly get much more pleasure from it.

My advice is: learn vi and practice it now and then to keep it in memory, but also learn emacs and use it daily for pleasure and productivity.

Everyone decent SA should use vi AND should use a visual editor

Try & use vi at least once a week to keep it fresh in your mind

true is the king !!!

I find that system administrators almost always choose vi while developers prefer emacs. It really depends on what you're trying to do. As a sys admin you want something that you can use quickly and make edits as efficiently as possible. As a developer you'll have different needs when writing or maintaining code.

I have replied to this post in the past, citing my preference for Nedit; however, recently I have been utilizing "vi" or "vim" for editing code/text. I was a little intiimidated of using those editors, but now, through more usage have become more comfortable using them. There are advantages to using Nedit and "vi", but as pointed out in other postings, it depends on what you want to do. Although, "vi" is common (native) to Unix and Linux, whereas Nedit has to be made for the system that it is to be used on.

My point...
Don't just rely on one type of editor, become familiar with as many as possible (i.e. Think outside the box).