In article <200204251241.g3PCfDRS049239@w3.bluegrass.net>,
Thomas Mueller <tmueller@bluegrass.net> wrote:
>Robert Elz wrote:
> 
>> The NetBSD "vi" is "nvi", which is pretty close to the original.   Forget
>> "vim", that's rubbish ("improved" indeed!)

I agree with kre here.

nvi is a true vi clone. I.e. care has been taken to make it behave exactly
like historical vi.

for example consider:

    the dog and the cat

move over to g and type 'cft'; then type spaces, followed by backspaces.

vi/nvi will leave the right hand side of the line where it is, but vim
will scroll it to the left.

type '$', notice that traditional vi prints a $ nvi does not.

there are so many little differences here and there, i.e. where the
cursor ends up after certain operations, that make me stick with nvi
because my fingers are so wired with traditional vi.

christos
>
>Where can I find documentation regarding nvi and how it differs from elvis or
>vim?  I can't get to NetBSD partition now, can't run nvi ("pckbc: command 
>timeout" which is not nvi-related but prevents me from getting there), so I
>can't simply look and see what's there.  I have been running vim 6 and 
>elvis 2.1.4 Linux and DOS versions, elvis much more than vim because vim 6 DOS
>version had a bug making it practically impossible to edit two or more files
>concurrently, and I haven't checked yet to see if the Linux version had the
>same bug.  I am in elvis 2.1.4 DOS version as I type this.  Regarding nvi, I'm
>afraid I might try something I'm accustomed to in elvis and find it ain't there
>in nvi.
>
>I am not ready to agree or disagree on whether vim is rubbish, having not tried
>the Linux version sufficiently or checked the updates, but elvis 2.1.4
>installation is about 1/6 the size of vim 6 installation.
>