Best Editor? 2

[bitbrain]

I've been writing perl scripts using pico and I think I need a better editor. My nutshell book has chapters on emacs, vi, & ex. Looks as though there is a learning curve with each of them. Before I invest too much time, can anyone give me advice on editors?<br>
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Thanks in advance. <br>

 

[pmkincaid]

The editor I always use is Joe. Its quick and easy. Hit Ctrl-K then H and you've got the help menus. The part I like the best though is its speed.<br>
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Hope this helps,<br>
Paul

 

[bitbrain]

Thanks for the reply.<br>
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I tried joe and it wasn't found. I have a shell account on a remote machine so I don't have control over waht's installed.

 

[pmkincaid]

Sorry to hear that... From what I have heard, vi is some what of an elitest editor -- it takes some getting used to but people swear by it. It seems to be pretty popular - a lot more than emacs - you might want to look into vi...<br>
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Just my opinion though...

 

[AndyBo]

Oh! Editor wars! Not been in one of these for a while ;^)<br>
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I use vi and emacs, depending upon what I'm doing. If I'm doing some code hacking, then emacs is my editor of choice, especially under X. Best syntax highlighting of any other editor, IMHO.<br>
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If I'm doing a quick hack of, for eg, a system text file, then vi is brought into play. Quick to load, and quick to use once you get to know it. I think it's also got a better search and replace than any other editor. (Come on, how can you beat ':1,$ s/string_to_find/string_to_replace_with/g'? ;^)<br>
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Of course, they both have a bit of learning curve, and you get out what you put in.<br>
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BTW, ex is a line based editor that vi sits on top of. Whenever you enter a ':' command in vi, you are actually entering an ex command.<br>
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HTH.

 

[robherc]

Or, <i>maybe</i> you could just install linux on one of your personal machines & use xemacs on that one to create the text files (almost 0 learning curve for xemacs; if your can use MS Notepad, then you can use this)...not sure how much this helps, but it's an idea <p>-Robherc<br><a href=mailto:robherc@netzero.net>robherc@netzero.net</a><br><a href= > </a><br>*nix installation & program collector/reseller. Contact me if you think you've got one that I don't

 

[Manganus]

If you code more than a screenful long scripts or programs, then you are fit for emacs. The tutorial inside emacs makes you a much better emacs-user in one or two hours. The tutorial isn't finished in hours, but if you are used to editing scripts or &quot;real&quot; programs, you'll understand a lot in that time.<br>
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In my experience people who find emacs too dificult to use are either mainly writing letters on their computers, or have they used emacs without finding the help and/or the tutorial.<br>
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Personally I also use emacs for HTML-editing now and then.<br>
That way you really know how the HTML-code looks, and you have good support for validating the code.<br>
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A ported emacs actually works on Windows also. (W95 in my case.)