[SOC] Linux E-mail Clients?

[Jim Glover]

> Another nice thing about pine is that it has a great editor, pico
> (which can be used by itself).  Much easier to learn than vi, emacs,
> etc., although experienced Unix folks won't admit that.

I'll admit it!

However, I'll also point out that you won't find pico on every Unix
or Unix-like system out there.  You will find vi on just about any
Unix computer you happen to hit.  When I'm asked for advice about
editing text files on Unix or Unix-like systems, I always recommend
vi.  If you use something else, sooner or later you're likely to end
up in a situation where you could otherwise do something very useful,
only you can't, because you don't know vi.

I'll also point out that while vi can take some time to learn...

--You needn't learn every bell and whistle on vi before you can use
it quite effectively.  A small subset of the available commands will
serve you quite adequately.

--Once you do start learning some of the bells and whistles, you'll
find vi a very powerful editor which will serve you well.  You'll be
more productive in the long run if you start out learning vi.

If "easier to learn" is of paramount importance, pico or joe or
several others would be better choices than vi.  On the other hand,
if "easier to learn" were driving your decisions, you probably
wouldn't have selected Unix/Linux in the first place!  If a little
extra learning in exchange for a powerful, reliable and widely
available tool sounds like a good deal to you, seriously consider
vi.

73,
Jim  WB5UDE