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                      Expanded/Local Distribution Header
Sender     :  Joe CAMPBELL
Subject    :  HP full-screen editors
From       : "Joe CAMPBELL"
To         : "HP300L"
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>I don't speak for Robelle, but I will compare a little about
>QEDIT and 'vi', please lower case letters.
 
I don't think anyone can speak for Robelle except for the folks at
Robelle.  I've been using QEDIT for 7 years now, so the notion of
changing editors isn't one I'm going to take lightly.  QEDIT is my home
base.  From within it, I run the other tools/utilities/applications I need
to run to do my job.  Sorry - didn't mean to shout out 'vi'!
 
There is one primary reason why I'm forced to learn an editor other than
QEDIT.  It isn't on the Unix-based machines I'm doing more work on.  Between
the BSD unix machine my Internet Service Provider gives me access to and
a recently acquired SUN Netra Internet Server our company bought, I'm
forced to learn a different editor.  I used 'vi' back in college years ago
and it seems the logical choice.
 
With 'vi' now bundled into the FOS on MPE/iX 5.0, it's hard to ignore these
fundamental 'vi' facts:
 
1.   It's been around along time.
2.   It's a good editor with both line (ex) and full-screen editing modes.
3.   It's universal.
4.   It's a free tool (bundled into the FOS)
 
You simply can't ignore these facts.  It's clearly not intutive to use and
does take time to learn.  We are a COBOL shop too and I don't see us tossing
out QEDIT any time soon.  If I were Robelle, I wouldn't be too concerned.
I still think it would be interesting to hear Robelle explain why they think
QEDIT is a better tool to use than 'vi'  :-)
 
Joe