What unix text editor should I learn? [closed]

Question

Maybe this should be a community wiki page...

What unix text editor should I learn? My co-workers mostly use vi. I am thinking about vim because the syntax highlighting seems appealing. Is there any advantage to vi over vim?

I know that there are a lot of emacs fans out there too? Is there any reason to learn a specific editor?

Can you point me to some good learning references (for your suggested editor)?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Learn nvi, vim (essentially the same, for basic operation) and emacs to the point that you can do minor edits. Then decide which one you prefer and learn it more thoroughly. I have a preferred editor that is one of those three, but can do basic editing tasks with all of them.

Answer 2

If you're not sure, try several of them:

• vi/vim
• emacs
• joe
• pico
• ed

Use whichever one works best for your needs. Letting someone else make this decision for you is not a great idea.

Here is a more comprehensive list with a comparison of features:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_text_editors