In comp.os.linux.misc, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:

On 15 Nov 2025 18:48:51 GMT, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

I find it takes a lot of munging to get vim to *really* work like vi.

:set compatible

does a very good job. It does leave out some of the bugs. The nvi implementation claims to be bug compatible, but then compare how
modelines work in Real vi versus nvi and you'll be unable to believe
that claim. I also don't think it supports "arbitrary ex mode command
in third column of a tags file":

tagname filename operation

Invoke a tag with, say, ":tag tagname" and then it opens the named
file and runs the operation. In defanged editors, the only operations
supported are movements, like a :linenumber or /search-pattern/. In
real vi you can chain ex commands to do things like

:1,20 w >>$HOME/.profile | 99

That's going to append twenty lines to the user's .profile and then
jump to line 99 of the file.

stevie / elvis / neovim / busybox vi / ... are at best vi flavored editor.

The one on FreeBSD which I think is technically "nex" is much closer out
of the box.

nex / nvi are the same, right?

:he compatible has the disclaimer

When this option is set, numerous other options are set to make Vim as Vi-compatible as possible.

The Arch vi is the real thing. I've no idea what version it is because
real vi doesn't do --version or much of anything useful.

In vi, the standard way to get the version is with ":version". It looks
like arch is using Heirloom Vi:

https://ex-vi.sourceforge.net/

That is a port of old code with many multibyte (eg UTF-8) fixes. It
should work with hardcopy terminals, which a lot of other vi
implementations (including vim) will not do. Those others expect you
to use ex mode on hardcopy terminals.

I learned vi on Digital Unix, A/UX, HP-UX, SunOS 4, and Solaris
2.(various), but I dabbled in vi clones for a long time, and was using
vim back in the 2.x versions. Elvis is still the default vi in
Slackware, and I've used recent versions of elvis for that reason. nvi
is default on NetBSD, and probably that FreeBSD one mentioned above. I
use NetBSD regularly and other BSDs very rarely.

In the vim distro there are sample macro packages. The ones to run
Conway's Game of Life were written by me on a Solaris box. The Solaris
vi can run them, but eventually it crashes out because there is a bug
that makes real vi (at least real vi of that era) forget marks after a
while. Vim will just work. Neovim fails to even start.

On the Debian system I'm working on right now those macros are in /usr/share/vim/vim90/macros/life/

Elijah
------
admits elvis is a pretty good vi imitation, but still not perfect

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sat, 15 Nov 2025 22:07:46 -0000 (UTC), Eli the Bearded wrote:

I also don't think it supports "arbitrary ex mode command in
third column of a tags file" ...

Isn?t there a vi derivative that supports Lua as an alternative extension language to those antiquated ex commands?

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In comp.os.linux.misc, Lawrence DOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

On Sat, 15 Nov 2025 22:07:46 -0000 (UTC), Eli the Bearded wrote:

I also don't think it supports "arbitrary ex mode command in
third column of a tags file" ...

Isn't there a vi derivative that supports Lua as an alternative extension language to those antiquated ex commands?

I wouldn't know and I don't care to look. I don't find scripting
language integration with the editor to my tastes. I did just see
someone in comp.editors complaining about something Lua related in vim,
and I could believe vim offers it as a compile option. I have not
compile vim myself in a while.

(There was a 8.1.x vim that had a bug with <ctrl-v><ctrl-m> on the : line,
and that was painful enough for me to recompile instead of using the
package, but since then package version is fine.)

Elijah
------
whose notes say that compile was early 2020

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sat, 15 Nov 2025 23:14:09 -0000 (UTC), Eli the Bearded wrote:

In comp.os.linux.misc, Lawrence DOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

Isn't there a vi derivative that supports Lua as an alternative
extension language to those antiquated ex commands?

I wouldn't know and I don't care to look. I don't find scripting
language integration with the editor to my tastes.

You don?t think of it as an improvement on what?s already there?

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In comp.os.linux.misc, Lawrence DOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

On Sat, 15 Nov 2025 23:14:09 -0000 (UTC), Eli the Bearded wrote:

I wouldn't know and I don't care to look. I don't find scripting
language integration with the editor to my tastes.

You don't think of it as an improvement on what's already there?

"What if instead of soy sauce, you had your sushi with ketchup?"

Elsethread you compare vi and vim to a Trabant and a Morris Minor. I
suspect you don't appreciate the editor, and I don't think you are in a position to know what is an improvement or not.

It's fine to to like nano or emacs or vscode or whatever. But that
just means you are not coming from a place that can judge my
appreciation of the features of vi(m).

Elijah
------
ketchup is a salty sauce after all

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:43:07 -0000 (UTC), Eli the Bearded wrote:

In comp.os.linux.misc, Lawrence DOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

On Sat, 15 Nov 2025 23:14:09 -0000 (UTC), Eli the Bearded wrote:

I wouldn't know and I don't care to look. I don't find scripting
language integration with the editor to my tastes.

You don't think of it as an improvement on what's already there?

"What if instead of soy sauce, you had your sushi with ketchup?"

Elsethread you compare vi and vim to a Trabant and a Morris Minor. I
suspect you don't appreciate the editor, and I don't think you are in a position to know what is an improvement or not.

Does that mean you don?t care for sushi?

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)