[H-GEN] ae ???

[Robert Brockway]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and     ]
[ Unix-related topics. Posts from non-subscribed addresses will vanish. ]

On Wed, 10 Apr 2002, baz wrote:

> [ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and     ]
> [ Unix-related topics. Posts from non-subscribed addresses will vanish. ]
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Andrae Muys" <amuys at bubbles.contal.net.au>
> To: <general at lists.humbug.org.au>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 9:19 AM
> Subject: Re: [H-GEN] ae ???
> 
> 
> > It is a reasonably common occurance for two vi users with > 5 years
> > experience to be working on a problem only to have one of them exclaim
> > "How did you do that so fast?", and learn yet another short-cut that will
> > improve his editing efficiency.
> 
> Sorry, I'm confused. I thought you liked vi but this is a point against it,
> right?

Not at all.  Vi, like many other unix utils has vast capabilites (on a
different thread checkout the man pages for a few shells sometime).

Let's look at an example.

There are 2 tools, A & B.

An expert or a document can teach you basic functionality with either tool
in about 30 minutes.  This is true for vi imho.  Basic functionality
includes how to move around the file, cut, copy, paste, save & quit
without saving.

If you use tool A for 6 months you know it back to front.  You're an
expert.  It's great - you can do everything you need and never consider
that it is missing anything.

If you use tool B, after 6 months you're great.  You can do all the stuff
you run into on a daily basis.  It might take a few key strokes (or mouse
clicks as the case may be), but you can do it.

You have maxed out the capabilites of tool A.  Use it for 10 years and
you'll only be as good as you were after 6 months.

With tool B however, you're always improving.  Checking a manpage, talking
to someone else of about the same skill level, etc, and you often pick up
something new.

I contend (as indeed do others such an Andrae I believe) that tool B is
the superior tool.  Both allow you reasonable flexability after an initial
period where you come up to speed (all tools have this time) but tool B
allows you to keep improving. 

One of the strengths of unix is that it has tools like this - where you
can keep improving.  I often discover something new which I find useful
even after a decade of using unix systems.  The fact the the alternative
doesn't even _allow_ the user to do this great new thing I've discovered
in no way invalidates the fact that I have learned something new and can
now use it to be more productive.

See what we mean?
Cheers,
	-Rob

-- Robert Brockway B.Sc. email: robert at timetraveller.org  ICQ: 104781119
   Linux counter project ID #16440 (http://counter.li.org)
   blake: up 90 days, 20:24,  8 users,  load average: 1.00, 1.01, 1.00
   "The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens" -Baha'u'llah


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