Emacs vs. Eclipse vs. Vim

[Mario Testinori]

On Sat, 29 Nov 2008 12:44:14 -0800, Josh <jhofmo at hotmail.com> wrote:

>If you were a beginning programmer and willing to make an investment in 
>steep learning curve for best returns down the road, which would you pick?
>
>I know this topic has been smashed around a bit already, but 'learning 
>curve' always seems to be an arguement. If you feel that one is easier 
>or harder than the others to learn feel free to tell, but let's not make 
>that the deciding factor. Which one will be most empowering down the 
>road as a development tool?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>JR

First, you must understand that this is an extremelly dangerous
question to ask on a public newsgroup (expecially regarding the first
and the third in the series). Wars have began over this. Many people
were harmed in those wars. Many a land have been conquered and many a
land lost. Many cows were killed. Many chickens were eaten in those
wars.
So, in regards for the chickens, decide carefully whether you want to
continue on this journey.

Well, that aside, it's a perfectly reasonable question. Myself, I
never used eclipse so I can't give any opinion on it, but I have used
vim and 'macs extensivly.
In the end, I somehow settled onto vim, not because I think it's
better, or ... anything else, but because at some time a coleague of
mine gave me a few scripts of his which I found extremely useful in my
day to day work, and ... 
Both are usually noted as leaving a "steep learning curve" - my advice
would be to take this with some reserve. Yes, both have different
interfaces from pretty much everything on today's windows's common
user interface or linux's, but apart from that, it's pretty much the
same as always; you've got save, open, you write in files, ... maybe
vim's several modes can confuse you at first, but you'll see its not a
big deal after all.
Somebody suggested when you try learning either of those you stay in
them as much as possible - I would reconsider that. Been using vim for
15 years now, but I still go back to other editors when situation
demands. For quick and dirty edit notepad2 will serve fine, or kedit
on L.
By forcing on working in one of these all the time, not having
yourself accustomed to them, you will find yourself in a need to do
something, and not knowing how, in the end you will give up on them.
Stay with your current preference for as long as you like, while you
slowly discover ways to do those things in these as well. As time
passes - maybe, maybe not - you'll discover it's much easier to do it
in these.
And last advice, ... I started using vim a long time ago, not because
it was this or that, but because there wasn't much of a choise.
Remember quite clearly using EDT for DOS for some time but it had its
drawbacks. In nowadays you've got plenty of choices, notepad++,
notepad2, programmers notepad, thisEdit, thatEdit ... all sorts of
edits. If you don't (after some time) find yourself liking it, well,
don't use it. You won't be much productive (the hip word in these
discussions) by using something you find alien. Stay with your
favourite.
I sometimes think half the people use these because the other half
talked them into it, and gave them the impression that "it was cool"
while they were perfectly happy with their current choise (under
windows for example, programmers notepad is a very nice editor, imho).

Just my 2 cents.
--
Mario