Why is vi so popular?

I would hazard a guess that "vi" is popular because so many people hate Emacs

Seriously, I've used both.  I typed in my dissertation using Emacs, so just thinking about using it again makes me tired. 

I could never get the hang of "vi".  More often than not, when I tried to edit a file it would delete something I wanted to keep.  So I summon it as rarely as possible.  When I need a line editor for a short file, my preference is still "ed".

Along with the many "vi" versus Emacs disputes, there's also controversy as to how to pronounce it.  Is it a single syllable rhyming with "bye" or is it two syllables "vee aye"?  I pronounce it "vee'-uh" (i.e., "via"), after the title character of my favorite horror movie "Viy", a 1967 Russian film based on a story by Gogol.  In the film, "Viy" is a hideous, soul-sucking demon.

IMHO, vi is popular because it's installed by default on *nix systems ... emacs, pico, nano, whatever may or not be there but vi is always available.

I personally use emacs when I'm programming, but  I use vi for any administration tasks.

As a SOF (80), I use Vi or the undate VIM for all kinds of things.  EMACS is just too much work.  I like that it doesn't add formatting junk when I write code.  Also when I want to look at or modify files, I use VIM.

I think it's mainly because you can do basic editing and all the more fancy stuff and require no more than a tty/Telnet/SSH session.

You have the superior clones who do the colourisation and other fun things but the basics get you running..What more could you want

I agree with Bruce above. I've yet to see a *nix installation that didn't have vi. When your system fails to boot up and dumps you to a prompt in single user mode, you better have the tools available and the minimum skills to repair your system and get it back up without having X. After a while you just get used to using it. It's fast, pops right open, and can take you where you need to go. The funny thing is once alot of people start to get comfortable on a gui based editor they want to learn the keyboard shortcuts so you lose some of the advantage of the drop down menus etc...

I still find I use it quite a bit when I ssh into a remote system and I'm glad I learned how back a million years ago although the original reasons for learning it are far behind me.

It was a good question though, and made me smile thinking of my answer.

Mike

You know one other reason is when you are communicating with other *nix people you can often tell them "Just vi the file and do this, this, and this ..." and they know what you are talking about and often know how to do it. And when they don't they can find a reference, start using it, and next thing you know, they are part of the fold. And the cycle continues.

Mike

Another tip:  you can tell an experienced *nix hand because they say "vee-eye" ..

LOL, that's how I learned to say it.

..... because nano was not available when vi was released.

yeah but VIM has been around for years but we use it merely as a "posh" VI.

VI ... is just good enough..not great but good enough and simple to implement and incumbent.. Job done!!