[sf-lug] FWIW and :r! dig -t ns sf-lug.com

[Asheesh Laroia]

On Wed, 24 Oct 2007, Christian Einfeldt wrote:

> In other words, the power of vi is that it lets you solve really deep
> problems when all of the GNOME programs are just too locked up to solve the
> problems.  The other thing that is powerful about vi is that it is useful
> with all or nearly all Linux programs.  Once you learn it, you don't have to
> worry about what you are going to do if your X quits or locks.
>
> Learning vi is really hard, though.  I tried a little bit, and it really
> kicked my ass.  heh.

The first time I ran vi, I couldn't figure out how to quit.  So I 
rebooted.  (I'm not joking.)

I recommend nano for general text editing - it has syntax highlighting and 
search and replace (with regular expressions, if you're into those) - but 
it also always gives you context-sensitive help at the bottom of the 
screen so that you know what you can do.  That way, you can never forget 
how to use it - you just end up using it slower while you look through the 
options.

Just be *sure* to disable word-wrap mode when you run it if editing config 
files.  That's "nano -w".

vi does have a geek machoness associated with it, but I get enough geek 
machoness from other parts of my life. (-;

-- Asheesh.

--
character density, n.:
 	The number of very weird people in the office.