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vi editor in JavaScript
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 9th July 2008
Although advanced features like colour-coding aren't yet available, jvsi is still pretty darn handy for vi users.
Created by Internet Connection (link requires JavaScript) and recently popularised by hacker site Hack a Day, jvsi is a clone of the excellent text-editor vi written in JavaScript.
What jvsi does is turn any text box into a vi window, with rich editing tools at your fingertips. With the power of vi under its hood, jvsi features all the excellent features that you never knew you needed while browsing the web – ed/ex command support, vi-keys, full Unicode support, and more.
If you've never used vi, or its more recent incarnation as Vim (Vi IMproved) which comes bundled with most Unix-alike operating systems – the system of modal editing might take a bit of getting used to. Basically, vi has two modes – insert mode and command mode. When in insert mode, the system operates like a traditional text editor: whatever you type appears on-screen. In command mode, by contrast, the keyboard turns into a powerful editing toolkit: if you want to delete an entire line, as an example, you can do so just by typing “dd”.
The long-running editor wars are far from over, with Emacs fans defending their choice of editor – often described as a promising operating system lacking only a good text editor – to the bitter end. If you're a vi fan, then implementing jvsi on the comments section of your blog is a good way of ensuring only the enlightened are able to post. In keeping with it roots, jvsi is distributed under the GNU General Public Licence.
Are you a vi believer, or an Emacs heretic? Perhaps you think that they're both too complicated for their own good? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Comments (16)Stats: 0.435 seconds
Obligatory bash quote:
:D
i concur doctor.. :?
lol i get this...
First thing i do on any linux system is make sure nano is installed ;)
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
the first thing i do is ensure vim is installed, and then vim-syntax options. So any chance of bit setting up jvsi in an optional format (if possible)
It's because it's *nix.
Absolutely we do - what do you turn to when you're working on a server OS with no GUI, no functioning network connection, the world's weirdest disk formatting system (read as: no floppies, USB drives, or CDs) and need to edit config files to get the thing to work? Command-line text editing is a necessity at times.
But yes, my first several tries at vi looked rather like: