rnd0 wrote:
vim is way too heavy for a server, at least I've had problems with it. nvi is better, and it's one of the first things I add to debian.
I've occasionally heard that vim is bloated and I can see why, but this really surprises me! I think of it as a lightweight because it usually starts instantaneously, plus some part of me is still living in the era when "server" meant "powerful". (I've grown to prefer retro tech.) Between all that and having just woken up, your statement blew my mind!
But I know why it could be the case. I've had VPSs which were smaller and slower than anything at home.
Continued use of my Forth block editor has led me to hate all forms of vi. It's almost always less trouble to set the selection with a few primitive commands than choose the right vi commands to first position the cursor and then make another choice to tell vi what to change or delete. It doesn't help that some movement commands behave differently under change, delete, and simple movement. It's lack of working with the selection makes it far more complicated than it needs to be.
I really want to edit files with something like my block editor; straightforward and simple. I wrote edda a few years ago but didn't know how to make a good command set at the time. I got hung up on memory management too. The best and worst part of Forth is that you basically make up the language as you go along, but I'm finding I'm not that good.