Re: Hard to switch from vi

[Floyd L. Davidson]

Mathias Dahl <brakjoller@gmail.com> wrote:
>floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) writes:
>
>>>To be fair, Emacs is full of modes, all the time you are working in
>>>different ones. Most are very similar when it comes to basic text
>>>editing, but think about Dired or the M-x prompt, or isearch or...
>>
>> To be specific, the type of interface used by emacs is known as
>> modeless.  It has many modes, but it *automatically* defaults back
>> to insert mode when any of the other modes is completed.
>
>From wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modeless):
>
>  Modelessness is a property of computer user interfaces. In a
>  modeless interface, the same input from the user will always trigger
>  the same perceived action. This is opposed to a modal interface,
>  where the action perceived to have been executed is dependent on the
>  current state of the system.
>
>  The purpose of modeless interfaces is to avoid mode errors by making
>  it impossible for the user to commit them.
>
>If we agree on the definition above, Emacs is indeed a modal
>application in many ways.

That definition is not particularly good.  Using it make a
modeless editor impossible.

I'll stick with VI being modeful and Emacs modeless.  And will
reject as obviously flawed *any* definitions that do not work
with that premise.   That is an intrinsic difference between
those two editors.

-- 
Floyd L. Davidson            <http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)                         floyd@apaflo.com