Why is vi so popular?

This is a minor point, but my curiosity has been sparked by a number of suggestions to use vi to edit a file. I remember vi being the hot thing 30 years ago - yes, I've been around that long . - actually got a TRS 80 mod 1 about thirty four years ago. Writing programs on that machine along with my experience using the line editor on BIX has given me a long standing aversion to using line editors. The people who are recommending it's use are people who I respect for their technical knowledge. I must assume that vi still has some capabilities that make it a recommended choice over a good screen editor. If someone has the time and the inclination to help educate a SOF (seriously old fart) I'd appreciate it!

Thanks,

Ralph

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Former Member over 12 years ago

As Bruce pointed out, vi is standard on every nix installation, so if you are going to devote brain cells to learning something, it's generally good to pick something you can rely on being available.

One other advantage is that a lot of the commands are based on sed sequences, so you can also use it to test or create formatting or search scripts for automating document tasks.
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Former Member over 12 years ago

As Bruce pointed out, vi is standard on every nix installation, so if you are going to devote brain cells to learning something, it's generally good to pick something you can rely on being available.

One other advantage is that a lot of the commands are based on sed sequences, so you can also use it to test or create formatting or search scripts for automating document tasks.
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