On Thursday 15 December 2005 16:52, François Pinard wrote:
[Jerry Feldman]
[B Stia] vi has two modes [...]
Actually, vi (or in our case vim) has 3 modes [...]
Vim has 11 modes:
Normal mode Visual mode Select mode Insert mode Command-line mode Cmdline mode Ex mode
Operator-pending mode Replace mode Insert Normal mode Insert Visual mode Insert Select mode
Do `:h vim-modes' if you need confirmation. (Ι'm using 7.0aa ALPHA.)
-- François Pinard http://pinard.progiciels-bpi.ca
I'm sure he doesn't have vim 7.0, as he is using SuSE 9.2. ;-) The bottom line was, I think, that vim usage is different than almost all other text editors, and so Bob was having trouble using such a weird interface to make a simple change in a text file. It is not normal (and I submit nonsensical -- there, that'll start a flame war ;-) ) for a text editor, once launched and with a document open, to refuse to accept text for input until after you additionally tell it to begin accepting text for input. It may be the standard *nix editor that you can count on being present in any given system, but that doesn't mean it is easy to use or has a familiar interface. Long live pico! Mark