What are the pros and cons of Vim and Emacs?

There is a vi available on every unix system (or almost), however you can't say this about any other editor. This is the #1 reason, imo, to learn and familiarize yourself with vi (please note 'vi' not 'vim'). I've never seen Emacs be available in a default install.

I'm not saying don't use Emacs or this is the only reason to use Vim, but when you want to be able to use Unix systems that aren't yours... vi is part of the universal language.

3 years ago

Since it hasn't been explicitly stated, I'll add that there is no better programming environment (Lisp in a box, SLIME, etc.) than a slightly modified Emacs distribution. All of my programming needs (99%) are taken care of from within Vim, but for all those Lisp libraries and routines I write, I have to fire up Emacs to get anything productive done.

3 years ago