THE EDITOR WAR

A short, affectionate history

The year is 1976. At Berkeley, Bill Joy writes vi — “visual” mode for the ex editor — tuned for the ADM-3A terminal, whose arrow keys were helpfully labeled with the letters H, J, K, L. (vi users are still navigating with those keys. Old habits compile.)

Across the country at the MIT AI Lab, a set of TECO macros grows into Emacs, the editor that becomes Richard Stallman’s GNU Emacs — an editor so extensible it has been called “a great operating system, lacking only a good editor.” It wears the joke well; it probably has a mode for that.

By the 1980s the rivalry has its own house of worship: alt.religion.emacs, the Usenet newsgroup where the faithful gathered to praise, tease, and occasionally excommunicate. Newcomers learned the liturgy fast: thou shalt not ask how to quit vi (it’s :q — you may now feel superior), and thou shalt not ask why Emacs wants so much memory (it needs room for the kitchen sink).

Decades later the war continues — politely, mostly — because both editors are genuinely wonderful and their users are genuinely convinced. This campus, being neutral ground, hosts the war the way Switzerland hosts summits: with excellent signage and no official position. The gift shop, however, sells both shirts.

House rules of the exhibit

1. Roast the editors, not the people.  2. ed is the standard text editor and is above all conflict.  3. Anyone caught editing this page in Notepad will be gently educated.