An Editor that Skips to the End of a Def

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

In message <5lhs4pF8bkunU1 at mid.individual.net>, Bjoern Schliessmann wrote:

> Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>
>> After two decades of putting up with vi just to ensure
>> compatibility with every proprietary *nix system I might come
>> across, let me just say ...
>> 
>> USE EMACS!
> 
> Nah. Use vim.

Every other text editor I have ever used understands that the current
position in a file is _between_ two characters (or before the first
character, or after the last character), not _on_ a character. But not vi
and its ilk.

Try the following in vi/vim: Move to some point in the middle of a line.
Press "i" to get into insert mode. Press escape to get out again. You'll
end up one position to the left of where you were before. Press "i", and
then escape again--you've moved another position left. Why is it incapable
of keeping track of such a simple thing as your current position in the
file?

Why does it need two different insert commands, "i" versus "a"? Because one
of them can't insert at the end of a line, and the other can't insert at
the beginning.

And why have command-versus-insert mode at all? No other text editor still
surviving uses such an antiquated concept.