[Mark A. Taff]
[François Pinard]
[Jerry Feldman]
[B Stia] vi has two modes [...]
Actually, vi (or in our case vim) has 3 modes [...]
Vim has 11 modes:
I'm sure he doesn't have vim 7.0, as he is using SuSE 9.2. ;-)
Grosso modo, vim 6 is very similar to vim 7.
The bottom line was, I think, that vim usage is different than almost all other text editors,
Editors may be very different, especially the powerful ones. It is true that many simpler editors are more or less alike. In the case of Vim, one may choose to call `evim' (Easy Vim) instead of `vim', in which case Vim hides most of its power, and even behaves like simpler editors.
Bob was having trouble using such a weird interface to make a simple change in a text file.
This has been a long trend to use tools without studying them, and then, making tools which do not require study. Good! Yet, there are limits to that. An interface is probably "weird" until you studied it :-).
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.
No doubt (to me) that Vim requires being studied. The same could be said of Emacs, of course. But anyone who develop a lot, it is usually a very worth investment. I once wrote a little essay on Emacs / Vim: http://pinard.progiciels-bpi.ca/opinions/editors.html
Long live pico!
:-) :-) -- François Pinard http://pinard.progiciels-bpi.ca