They called us the Keyboard Warriors, frontline soldiers in the Editor Wars. My battle was vi versus Emacs.
I was fresh out of college in the late '70s when I first encountered vi. Its raw, no-nonsense approach, its mode-based system, its minimalistic elegance – it all struck a chord. I mastered vi's cryptic commands and reveled in the simplicity of its design.
Then came the Emacs enthusiasts, touting their superior tool. It was an all-powerful text editor, they argued, an extensible, customizable environment that ran on Lisp, that could do everything short of making your coffee.
I stood my ground, defending the elegance of vi, the beauty of its rawness. But I watched, helpless, as vi compatriots defected, seduced by Emacs' siren call. Even I, in a moment of weakness, spent a week in the Emacs world. It was attractive, even alluring, with its all-in-one approach. But my heart remained loyal to vi.
Through the years, the skirmishes grew into full-blown flamewars. Heated debates, passionate defenses, outrig