terse editor

[karina.popkova at verizon.net]

Hello

Someone told me that the 'vi' editor
was elegant in its simplicity. 
It was most fundamental in its
functionality and easy to use.
Further, that with minimal key strokes
one could build code or edit a script
with ease and simplicity. 
(I am starting to appreciate the idea
of working at the command line, so 
that the focus is on the task at hand.)

They indicated that EMACs however, had greater 
utility in the development environment because
one could edit, but also compile code without
leaving the environment.

As I use Fedora Core 3, the editor 
gedit seems easy to use, but it is sorta 
'point and click' like windoze stuff.

To what extent is vi or EMACs used,
day to day, for development activities,
writing code, editing, compiling, debug,
etc ... Do hackers still use this stuff
or do they concede to graphical editors
and perhaps move onto next generation
"eclipse" as an environment?

karina