Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Birth of vi

Posted by Zonk on from the please-keep-emacs-trolling-to-a-minimum dept.

lanc writes "Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun, tells the story of how he wrote the vi editor. The article at The Register delves into his motives, who instigated the project, and some of the quirks of leaving a 'gift to mankind'. From the piece: '9600 baud is faster than you can read. 1200 baud is way slower. So the editor was optimized so that you could edit and feel productive when it was painting slower than you could think. Now that computers are so much faster than you can think, nobody understands this anymore. The people doing Emacs were sitting in labs at MIT with what were essentially fibre-channel links to the host, in contemporary terms. They were working on a PDP-10, which was a huge machine by comparison, with infinitely fast screens. So they could have funny commands with the screen shimmering and all that, and meanwhile, I'm sitting at home in sort of World War II surplus housing at Berkeley with a modem and a terminal that can just barely get the cursor off the bottom line.'"

15 of 459 comments (clear)

  1. So let the flame wars begin! by messju · · Score: 5, Funny

    (I'm using Emacs, BTW.)

    1. Re:So let the flame wars begin! by 91degrees · · Score: 5, Funny

      I hate them both.

      I'm not popular amongst Unix users.

    2. Re:So let the flame wars begin! by wakejagr · · Score: 5, Funny

      screw you guys, I cat everything through sed, and I like it that way!

      --
      Don't save Windows XP! http://www.petitiononline.com/jjw1xp/petition.html
    3. Re:So let the flame wars begin! by Janek+Kozicki · · Score: 5, Funny

      I have a nano sense of humor, so I don't get it.

      --
      #
      #\ @ ? Colonize Mars
      #
    4. Re:So let the flame wars begin! by Ithika · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't gedit.

      --
      the layman's guide to computer science
    5. Re:So let the flame wars begin! by timeOday · · Score: 5, Funny
      CLI will always have it's place... much like my half-retarded nephew who lives under the stairs... however as I for one can't wait for the day that intuitive interfaces rule the computing landscape with a soft, friendly fist!!!
      Why are you using a text editor at all? Shouldn't you be doing all your programming via drag and drop? And why does your post use text instead of more user-friendly pictograms? Maybe you can find yourself a nice keboard-free computer.
  2. I've been using vi for so long... by tuxlove · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think in vi. When editing, commands just happen like thoughts. They are so ingrained in my brain I don't even remember the actual key sequences. When a vi newbie asks, "how do you do XYZ in vi?," I have to stop and think hard, because I don't even know the commands any more.

    Vi is the ultimate editor, for one main reason. It's a modal editor, so commands can be mnemonic. With editors like emacs, you're always having to hit ^X before commands, or with MS word you're always having to lift your hand off the keyboard to move the silly mouse around. With vi, you don't need a steenking mouse. Your hands never leave the keyboard. And commands make sense and don't require that you hit some yucky control sequence to initiate.

    I love my vi.

    1. Re:I've been using vi for so long... by daddyrief · · Score: 5, Funny

      I second you, I'll even double it -- I love my vvii :P

      --
      "Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies." -Thomas Jefferson
    2. Re:I've been using vi for so long... by quintesse · · Score: 5, Funny

      No no, it's the perfect first obstacle to weed out the people who shouldn't be doing any programming/writing on a *NIX system! A bit like entrance exams for universities.

      Of course, the first thing I did when I was confronted with vi back in the 80s was write my own editor.

    3. Re:I've been using vi for so long... by Gnavpot · · Score: 5, Funny
      Yeah, but which editor did you use to write the code for your editor?

      He wrote another editor for that purpose.
    4. Re:I've been using vi for so long... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      and since one editor must be written in another editor, something must have written the very first editor - therefore God exists

    5. Re:I've been using vi for so long... by Gnavpot · · Score: 5, Funny
      and since one editor must be written in another editor, something must have written the very first editor - therefore God exists

      Are you claiming that editors are intelligently designed?
  3. Not hard enough.. by B5_geek · · Score: 5, Funny

    I haven't found vi or emacs to be hard enough.

    That why I port edlin to every box I work on.

    --
    "The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
  4. Obligitary joke by zakezuke · · Score: 5, Funny

    "My PID is Inigo Montoya. You kill -9 my parent process, prepare to vi. "

    modded down in three, two...

    --
    There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
  5. Join the Church of vi by Chrax · · Score: 5, Funny

    :w saves!

    I actually want that on a t-shirt. I would do it myself, but I don't think my stenciling skills are up to the task.