Quote Originally Posted by kirol
Woah there! Define "compete", please ?!? A knowledgeable vi user beats any GUI-editor user hands down for advanced plain text editing.
Exactly! "Plain text editing". See below for more information, and my mistake, and apology

Quote Originally Posted by markb
Hey Cuddles, vim (aka gvim), is a GUI editor!

Cuddles, in spite of all your useful advice over these and other forums, you are wrong on vim . No other editor comes close and I've never met anybody who can edit/create files as quickly and efficiently as I can using vim (I'm a software developer).
First of all, thanks, I guess. Second, my mistake. I was comparing a "word processor" with vi. When it comes to editing, as the needs of a word processor, vi lacks in the competition. BUT, I completely agree with, both of you, when you just need to edit a file, nothing comes close to the speed, and ease, of a simple editor. ( not saying that vi is "simple", just that it doesnt have all those "bells and whistles" that a lot of word processor programs have, and thus, allows a person to just get in quickly, edit, and get out. Thus, "simple" here, denotes ease of doing the task. )

I have to apologise, I was comparing vi to a "full blown" word processor, and its power. I made the mistake on this one, because, if all you want to do is edit a file, vi is KING. If, on the other hand, you want to compare all the power of, say, M$ WORD, and all of its features, then vi, would be a pale comparison to it.

As kirol said, "plain text editing", you got me... vi is a great editor for that, no bells and whistles, no font selection, no point size, no object insertion; either links or photos, etc... vi is perfect.

I retract my "competent" statement, on the grounds, that, vi is a text editor, whereas, I was comparing it to, a, word processor program. Use what program a task is used for. I use OpenOffice.Org Write for word processing, when I need all of the bells and whistles it has. I use KWrite for script and text file editing, to the point that it "blocks" scripts into format structure. And, finally, I use vi, for "quick and dirty" editting of text files, the kind I just need to get in, edit, and get out, i.e. "no frills" kind of stuff.

As for a GUI based vi, never tried it, I am not even sure if I have it installed. But, this brings up my "competent" remark though... If vi runs in a GUI, can YOU compare it to, say, OpenOffice.Org Writer and all of its power? OR, is the GUI vi just a GUI of a text editor, still? I tend to fire up vi from a CLI, and when I do, my intent is, to just edit a text file quickly, "get in and out" quickly, thats all. If I wanted to change point sizes, fonts, insert some photos, some links to another file, add color, backgrounds, or, format it for publishing, I would never use vi for it, would you?

When I ran Windows, and, more specifically, had M$ Word, Publish, Photo Editor, etc... i.e. M$ Office installed, I would do some things with Word, some things with Notepad. In this example, "notepad" is how I use vi, and "M$ Word" is how I use kwrite and OO.Org Write, for. The task at hand dictates what "program", or editor, I use... Not just "what I like to use", but, what the program is used, or, geared to be used, for. Kind of like Knoppix, same thing.

So, again, I apologise for suggesting that vi isnt "competent", and comparing it to, a word processor program, sorry.
Ms. Cuddles