Vim vs Emacs: The Editor war
The rivalry between the users of Vim and Emacs is commonly known as the editor war. I would not probably say which is better here but I did start with Emacs few years ago while writing a text searching script. If you are an open source lover you can read this article to decide between Vim and Emacs.
It is really difficult to take sides when two products are equally good at something. Talking about my personal experience, when I first started using Emacs at first it was rough and difficult. How will you know that
Ctrl + x and Ctrl + s = save
Alt + w = Copy
Ctrl + w = Cut …
It does not make any sense. Right? But, When I was over with all the basic commands it was easier and so I used it for almost all sorts of programming.
I wanted to try vim too. I was fully onto it. I used it for a long time. I wrote many programs and scripts on vim too and after few months I again shifted to Emacs. Let’s get down to business and talk about specific editor.
Vim
Vim is a text editor and acronym for “Vi Improved” because vim was created as an extended version of vi editor with many additional features. It was developed using C and Vim Script in 1991. It supports both command line and graphical interface. It was basically designed to be used on slow terminals. It might be hard to learn for beginners. For a very fast typing and coding movements vim can be a better option because the cursor movements can be controlled using H,J,L,K unlike emacs which uses Ctrl+B or Ctrl+F. Its keybindings, in particular, strike a very nice balance between sane, nicely spaced out, logical to remember, and easy to access on your average QWERTY keyboard — but remember that an editor is more than its keybindings. Moreover, Vim is lighter than Emacs and uses less memory. Vim can use GUI libraries such as gtk, gnome, gnome2, motif, athena and neXtaw.
Emacs
Emacs is a class of feature-rich text editors, usually characterized by their extensibility. Emacs has over 1,000 editing commands. It also allows the user to combine these commands into macros to automate work. It was developed using C and Emacs Lisp in 1976. It also supports both command line and graphical user interface. Vim is easier to learn since it has a more natural interface especially for users familiar with GUI based text editors. The productivity and editing speed on Emacs is criticized due to the fact that Ctrl + B and Ctrl + F is used for the cursor movements which is more keys than one and comparatively takes more time for fast coders. Although, Emacs uses more memory but a single Emacs process can support several clients which in turn increases the startup speed and decreases the total memory usage narrowing the gap between Vim and Emacs. Emacs also supports a lot more customization of the editor environment. Programmers find Emacs to be far more customizable than Vim as it can be extended in elisp. Emacs uses XDisplay or gtk2 for its GUI.
In conclusion, I don’t want to overcook this pessimism because there are still some very active Vim and Emacs user groups. They will have their own statement on which one is the better one. Its on you to decide which one you like as both are equally better. As Bertrand Russell said, “War does not determine who is right — only who is left.”
