A very, very newbie question :)

[Aahz Maruch]

In article <39b623fe.4343445 at news.bright.net>,
Jonadab the Unsightly One <jonadab at bright.net> wrote:
>
>In brief, to use Emacs really effectively you need to take the time to
>learn lisp, but once you do it can literally do anything.  Basically,
>it's fifty megabytes or so of pure functionality.  Emacs is not just a
>text editor.  It can surf the web, do ftp, read usenet, match up your
>parens and other grouping symbols for you, and brew coffee.  People
>joke about using it as an operating system.  Emacs is a lifestyle
>choice.

That last sentence is more true than you think, I think.  The problem
with Emacs from my POV is that I can't stand the basic editing commands,
and would therefore be perpetually dependent on carting around a huge
init file.  That's why I stick with vi, which is *always* available and
only requires four or five lines of .exrc to customize it to my
preferences.  A bit less power, in the end, but the price is worth it.
-- 
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