Editors & mac to Linux stories

[Derick Centeno]

Re: YD General Digest, Vol. 1 # 1539 - message 3 & 5

Message 5 consisted of a discussion of editors in comparison to BBedit.

I'm surprised that many don't know about vi or vim!  vi is THE UNIX
programmer's editor; vim is vi with color display and output abilities.
Emacs and Xemacs are also very powerful and flexible editors in their
own rights.  Anyone of them blow BBEdit out of the water as regards to
functions and flexibility.  vi and vim can be modified via either
writing scripts within .profile or in our case, .bash_profile and
creating vim resource files directing vim to behave in specific ways.
I found at least one reference which claims that vi qualifies as being a
Turing machine!  With emacs and xemacs one can run various programs in
various languages and compile them within emacs and xemacs!

Be aware that vi/vim and emacs/xemacs create files differently. 
Learning them also takes a bit of time.  Each program can guide you how
to use it by itself!  I'm sure many would get a kick out of the
psychologist ai program within emacs/xemacs.  Try it and through a few
questions at it!  And you too will wonder about BBedit...and what you
are paying for.  Again vi/vim and emacs/xemacs are freely provided as
part of the YDL distribution; they'll always been there... even in
Champion Server!

I haven't yet figured out how to get vi to produce the output header
similar to how BBedit does it, but it's just a matter of time.  Once
I've done that (which is the only reason I like BBedit anyway) I will
have no use to use BBedit at all.  

vi/vim and emac/xemacs are really good examples of how open source
really outdoes the value of commercial products.  OpenOffice.org is not
quite there yet, so MS Office can probably survive for quite a bit
longer.  The clock is ticking already, however.  

This leads nicely into the next topic: Mac to Linux transitions. If
there is a reason to do this, vi/vim and emacs/xemacs are it. 

The other argument regarding Mac OS X v. Linux are classic computer
engineering design issues as involved as arguing "big-endian" v
"little-endian" deviances.  Mac OS X has been called "rootless" and it
is doubtful that without root sufficient control can be established by
anyone as well as can be done within Linux.  Also Linux is a complete
server environment open to whatever the mind can design or imagine; Mac
OS X is not flexible in that way.  There may be scientific and other
tools available for Mac OS X, but they are proprietary.  One may be
saving time, but whether one is saving money depends strictly upon one's
planned use of the computer and what he/she has in mind to develop.

I wish to clarify something else.  I have read that Linux was developed
on the PC first. I'm not sure if that was stated to imply anything in
particular, but it should be noted that Unix was always run on powerful
chips similar to the Motorola 68000 architecture and serious computing
work have nearly always only been done with predecessors and descendants
of a chip set which had the similar capacity for on-the fly accuracy
(which early versions of Intel were absolutely terrible at; even today
their descendants are better for little more than games and financial
calculations which do not require modern scientific analytic tolerances
or procedures).  A nice reference to this problem is given in the first
few pages of "Applied Numerical Methods in C" by Shoichiro Nakamura and
of course "Numerical Methods for Scientitists and Engineers" by
R.W.Hamming (who I believe is the author of the famous Hamming code used
even today for checking bit errors typical of Intel based systems). 

Linux as the cheapo Unix allows those with sufficient education and
experience to resort to utilizing the powerful accuracy which is part of
the overall design of the PowerPC chip which again Apple in its wisdom,
is attempting successfully to keep common users away from.  Which is
fine since many users are deliriously happy when an application they use
works better than the same or similar application did within a Windows
environment.  There is no reason why people can't have what they
wish; just let them get a Mac.  The rest of us who've lusted for more
control and power will continue to use Linux on a Mac, which means
Yellow Dog Linux, as no one wishes to void the Apple warranty which also
means getting the Mac you wish from Terra Soft Solutions with YDL
pre-installed!