- From: patl@athena.mit.edu - Subject: The True Path (long) - Date: 11 Jul 91 03:17:31 GMT - Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs,alt.slack - - When I log into my Xenix system with my 110 baud teletype, both vi - *and* Emacs are just too damn slow. They print useless messages like, - 'C-h for help' and '"foo" File is read only'. So I use the editor - that doesn't waste my VALUABLE time. - - Ed, man! !man ed - - ED(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual ED(1) - - NAME - ed - text editor - - SYNOPSIS - ed [ - ] [ -x ] [ name ] - DESCRIPTION - Ed is the standard text editor. - --- - - Computer Scientists love ed, not just because it comes first - alphabetically, but because it's the standard. Everyone else loves ed - because it's ED! - - "Ed is the standard text editor." - - And ed doesn't waste space on my Timex Sinclair. Just look: - - -rwxr-xr-x 1 root 24 Oct 29 1929 /bin/ed - -rwxr-xr-t 4 root 1310720 Jan 1 1970 /usr/ucb/vi - -rwxr-xr-x 1 root 5.89824e37 Oct 22 1990 /usr/bin/emacs - - Of course, on the system *I* administrate, vi is symlinked to ed. - Emacs has been replaced by a shell script which 1) Generates a syslog - message at level LOG_EMERG; 2) reduces the user's disk quota by 100K; - and 3) RUNS ED!!!!!! - - "Ed is the standard text editor." - - Let's look at a typical novice's session with the mighty ed: - - golem> ed - - ? - help - ? - ? - ? - quit - ? - exit - ? - bye - ? - hello? - ? - eat flaming death - ? - ^C - ? - ^C - ? - ^D - ? - - --- - Note the consistent user interface and error reportage. Ed is - generous enough to flag errors, yet prudent enough not to overwhelm - the novice with verbosity. - - "Ed is the standard text editor." - - Ed, the greatest WYGIWYG editor of all. - - ED IS THE TRUE PATH TO NIRVANA! ED HAS BEEN THE CHOICE OF EDUCATED - AND IGNORANT ALIKE FOR CENTURIES! ED WILL NOT CORRUPT YOUR PRECIOUS - BODILY FLUIDS!! ED IS THE STANDARD TEXT EDITOR! ED MAKES THE SUN - SHINE AND THE BIRDS SING AND THE GRASS GREEN!! - - When I use an editor, I don't want eight extra KILOBYTES of worthless - help screens and cursor positioning code! I just want an EDitor!! - Not a "viitor". Not a "emacsitor". Those aren't even WORDS!!!! ED! - ED! ED IS THE STANDARD!!! - - TEXT EDITOR. - - When IBM, in its ever-present omnipotence, needed to base their - "edlin" on a UNIX standard, did they mimic vi? No. Emacs? Surely - you jest. They chose the most karmic editor of all. The standard. - - Ed is for those who can *remember* what they are working on. If you - are an idiot, you should use Emacs. If you are an Emacs, you should - not be vi. If you use ED, you are on THE PATH TO REDEMPTION. THE - SO-CALLED "VISUAL" EDITORS HAVE BEEN PLACED HERE BY ED TO TEMPT THE - FAITHLESS. DO NOT GIVE IN!!! THE MIGHTY ED HAS SPOKEN!!! - - ? --
© 1991 Patrick J. LoPresti
-View source code or read the legal terms.
+
+ In memory of Roscoe Hamilton, 2013-2025
+Roscoe has passed away at the age of 12 Monday morning following hospitalization from pneumonia.
+