Undoubtedly, we can all agree that vi, like all other UNIX tools, is poorly conceived and awful to use.
However, beginners need to learn these tools if they want to become even somewhat proficient on UNIX systems. No pain, no gain.
However, beginners need to learn these tools if they want to become even somewhat proficient on UNIX systems. No pain, no gain.
I've been using vi (and vim and neovim) for 20 years and it's a fantastic editor but not for people new to the command line. There's no reason that nano shouldn't be the default. It's available on many systems by default anyway and it's much more beginner friendly than any vi spinoff. If the only reason for sticking to a thing is "tradition" then it's right to re-evaluate it.
There's a reason that "how to exit vi(m)" is the most read question on StackOverflow.
"I can understand and appreciate your perspective and opinion and would offer an alternative viewpoint"
Once you learn how to exit vim you only need to look it up a few more times before you begin to get it
I've also struggled to exit nano from the keyboard with ^X or whatever
Appreciating all sides of an argument helps one understand the delicate balance that exists rather than the constant polarizing of opinion that agreement and disagreement evoke
And in nano it's displayed right there at the bottom of the screen at all times whereas with vi/vim/neovim you have nothing to go by unless you're lucky enough that you happened to open it up on an empty buffer in which case the "splash" screen will tell you to consult with :help or quit with :q. StackOverflow is a testament to how slim your chances of randomly guessing that is.
> Appreciating all sides of an argument helps one understand the delicate balance that exists rather than the constant polarizing of opinion that agreement and disagreement evoke
I would agree with that if the comment I was replying to actually put up some good-faith arguments rather than just making unsupported statements about Unix/Linux and vi(m), or if we were arguing something wildly subjective here but the argument I was making was that nano is easier for newcomers than vim, and there's plenty of empirical data in the form of questions in forums and the like to back that up.
So, keeping in mind that you said you'd had your issues with exiting nano (despite the instructions being on-screen at all times), is CS for you?
Besides, people have other reasons to be messing around with Linux/Unix than studying CS.
I'm sorry, but you're presenting exactly 0 arguments for gatekeeping except gatekeeping itself, and that just seems rather silly to me.
That CS macho thing you're trying to get going is both silly, unproductive and meaningless.
I disagree with everything in this sentence.
(neo)vim + Unix tools make the best IDE in existence. Nothing else to date can hold a candle to that combination (except, perhaps, Plan 9 or Inferno OS).
Don't forget about the Dvorak keyboard. It doesn't work without Dvorak.