[COFF] editor wars

Will Senn will.senn at gmail.com
Sun Jul 20 23:52:09 AEST 2025


I remember having discussions about vi vs emacs in the mid 1990's. I'm 
curious if those were the first public wars about editors, or if y'all 
remember earlier flamewars on the subject? Maybe KEDIT vs EDIT?  I grew 
up on DOS, so edlin vs edit was quite the battle ground in discussions, 
but I don't remember flames... I find the vi/emacs divide quite 
insurmountable. As a vi guy, I cannot even understand emac's appeal. 
I've tried countless times, even going emacs only for a while... when I 
went back to vi, it was like old shoes, very comfortable. I didn't get 
the flamewar at all - you do you... but I did and still do find the 
passion on either side endlessly fascinating.

Two other debates are quite similar - one to do with spaces vs tabs, the 
other top-posting vs bottom-posting have provided me with hours of 
entertainment... I prefer tabs over spaces and top-posting, but I get 
the other points of view on these...

Will



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