[ale] Vim is 20!

Ron Frazier atllinuxenthinfo at c3energy.com
Thu Nov 3 10:34:15 EDT 2011


My reply at the bottom ... Ron

On 11/03/2011 09:48 AM, David Tomaschik wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 9:40 AM, Rich Faulkner<rfaulkner at 34thprs.org>  wrote:
>    
>> So...that means that Emacs pre-dates Vi?  I was working on Emacs back when I
>> worked at Sequent Computing Systems in 1988/89....wrote a couple of manuals
>> on it.  Ran UNIX and DYNIX in those days...kinda miss those old days
>> sometimes back in Beaverton, Oregon.  It was there that I first went online
>> as a matter of fact....[Rich starts tripping down memory lane and falls into
>> the ditch at the side of the road]  I will offer that I am not a fan of
>> Vi/Vim and trended to Emacs.  Then found my way to Notepad (ugh!) and now
>> gedit...(products of driving Windows from 1995-2008).
>>
>> Back to work....
>>      
> vi and emacs were both written in 1976[1][2].  "vim", on the other
> hand, was written in 1991, which is what this is about.  "vim" = "vi
> improved".
>
>
> [1] https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Vi
> [2] https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Emacs
>
>
>    

Hi guys,

It just so happens that I've been researching VIM as the editor to use 
for a Java programming learning project.  I'll probably be using VIM for 
this purpose initially and probably the NetBeans IDE later.  I know VIM 
is very powerful and has a large number of keystroke commands for 
efficient editing.  I've seen 500 pg books on it.  However, I'm going to 
use the GUI version initially, so I can get down to the task of editing 
program files without spending 6 months learning the editor.  As time 
goes by, I'll learn more and more keystrokes.  One advantage for my 
purposes is that VIM can run on either Windows or Linux.  I've found a 
few links on the subject I thought I'd share.

VIM Home Page - http://www.vim.org/index.php

Ubuntu VimHowTo - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VimHowto

Note, Ubuntu has Tiny Vim (vim-tiny in the Synaptic package manager) 
installed by default which has a reduced memory footprint.  If you want 
the full version, including a tutorial and many advanced features, you 
have to install "vim".  If you want the graphical version available, as 
I do, install "vim-gnome".  I'm running Ubuntu 10.04.  Since Ubuntu 11.? 
may or may not be running Gnome, I don't know if that last item still 
applies.

If you want to activate the tutorial, run "vimtutor" at a command prompt.

VIM Tips Wiki - http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Vim_Tips_Wiki

VIM Commands Cheat Sheet - http://bullium.com/support/vim.html

I have a VIM question.  I know the answer may be hidden in the web pages 
I've cited or others, but if someone knows a quick solution, that would 
be great.  I need to know how to enable Java syntax highlighting and 
auto indention.  Maybe later, I'll want to do code folding, but I'm not 
totally sure what that means.  I just read about it somewhere.

Sincerely,

Ron

-- 

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier

770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT c3energy.com



More information about the Ale mailing list