Emacs vs. Eclipse vs. Vim

[Roy Smith]

In article <gh079v$kl5$1 at news.motzarella.org>,
 Richard Riley <rileyrgdev at gmail.com> wrote:

> Roy Smith <roy at panix.com> writes:
> 
> > Clay Hobbs <clay at lakeserv.net> wrote:
> >> The first real text editor I used was Vim, which I actually started
> >> using about a year ago.  I've looked at Emacs and it just looks
> >> confusing.
> >
> > I've been using emacs for so many years (um let's see, it's got to be close 
> > to 25 years now; first saw it on Columbia's TOPS-20 systems in the early 
> > 80's) that my fingers know what they're doing without my even thinking 
> > about it.  In fact, I used to work with another emacs nut.  Every so often, 
> > one of use would watch the other do something and ask, "What was that?".  
> > Inevitably, neither of us could evoke the keystrokes we had just typed.  We 
> > would just re-do it, and watch our fingers to see what we typed.  It didn't 
> > even have to be on a keyboard; we could air-type it, and that was good 
> > enough.
> >
> > In any case, the basic logic behind emacs is pretty simple.  C-F is forward 
> > one character.  C-B is back one character.  C-N is Next line.  C-P is 
> > Previous line.
> 
> It's worth pointing out to people making "loony" signs here that the
> arrow keys work too ....

Yeah, I guess.  I use the arrows keys to mindlessly scroll around in a 
file, especially when I just want to show some code to somebody.  It serves 
two purposes.  First, I can lean way back from the keyboard and reach out 
with one hand (giving the other person better visibility).  Second, it 
makes it easier for a non-emacs person to jump in and drive for a while 
(they saw me use the arrow keys and do the same, no explanations needed).

For any serious editing, however, it's strictly the keys on the main part 
of the keyboard.  It's just so much faster when your hands never have to 
leave their home position.  To use the arrow keys, I need to pick my hand 
up and move it over to the arrow key cluster.  Slow, slow, slow.