Proving the Obviously Untrue

I've tried lots of programming editors and ides over the years, obviously in Unix and Linux this is a Holy War, particularly between the advocates of vi and emacs. It is common for both groups to suggest that the other editor is hopelessly over-complex or clumsy. I think there's some truth in that, because essentially, they both stink.

I tend to be an emacsen user myself, but I just think emacs is slightly less awful than vi. My first action on a new install is usually to use vi to edit my sources.list in Debian, to help me install emacs. Perhaps thats strange, because I really like sed. So what's the problem with them? They both share this kind of puritanically awkward interface that works well on a console, but sucks in a GUI. They both use ridiculously arcane sequences of key presses to do anything, and I mean even basic stuff like saving and quitting. Yes, yes, you don't have to lecture me about old terminals and their limitations, been there done that, got the t-shirt. I tend to do all my systems maintenance in emacs, but when I'm programming, I've started to love the softness of a decent editor that actually makes it plain and simple to edit multiple buffers of source code, even though its a pain to use different editors for console and gui work.

Continue reading "Geany and other Development Tools"

Posted by Colin Turner

I have to say, I've enjoyed the "re-imagining" of Battlestar Galactica immensely so far. When it first aired, I thought it was a pretty corny idea, and didn't watch it, but I watched an odd episode here and there, and I began to realise that this was probably the most slick, dramatic, special effects laden sci-fi show yet. It's very addictive, and one of the very few TV shows I feel I don't want to miss an episode of.

Tonight I just sat down to watch season 4, episode 3 (no spoilers, don't worry!), and was very gratified to see Cylon base ships moving in a background that contained Orion, absolutely no doubt about it, a nice touch to show Earth is near. Now Orion is the easiest constellation to see, and I admit I never paid attention to the background before, but it's just that kind of nice detail I like about the show. I'll keep looking for more constellations now!

Posted by Colin Turner