Try Ratpoison, It's Good for You

[dduardo]

Ratpoison is an ultra-minimal window manager for Linux/Unix that is keyboard driven. If your like me and like Vim's (or Emacs') split window feature and want this capability on your desktop, then Ratpoison is the WM for you.

http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/

Warning: Not for the entrenched GUI user.

 

[hitssquad]

That might work well with an HMD and a Twiddler, eh?

 

[abhishek]

A little too minimalistic for me. I can live with fluxbox.

 

[dduardo]

Yeah, but you get used to it. I've recently been exchanging gui programs for command-line versions. For example, I use mocp for music, as compared to xmms. It is a daemon that runs in the background and runs through my playlist. Very simple and does its job well.

 

[abhishek]

Got a link to mocp? Can't seem to find it easily on Google.

I used to run mplayer in the background for a while long ago when my X turned unstable. Though it understood .m3u and .pls, playlist control was thin. I switched back to XMMS pretty soon.

 

[dduardo]

http://moc.daper.net/

 

[The Idiot]

Ratpoison is an ultra-minimal window manager for Linux/Unix that is keyboard driven. If your like me and like Vim's (or Emacs') split window feature and want this capability on your desktop, then Ratpoison is the WM for you.

http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/

Warning: Not for the entrenched GUI user.

I was actually able to find Vim for windows (GVim) and it works great! :)

 

[graphic7]

'vi' is the real man's editor. Forget any of that 'vim' stuff.

 

[dduardo]

'vi' is the real man's editor. Forget any of that 'vim' stuff.

Your just a bitter emacs user.

 

[graphic7]

Your just a bitter emacs user.

Actually I despise emacs more than I do vim, however I consider them both terrible. I prefer the original vi, vi on UNIX systems, and nvi on free UNIX derivatives. Even with all the flaws, I still like the original.

 

[Nylex]

I don't know what it is about Window Managers, but people complain if they don't get a screenshot. I've told them again and again that ratpoison doesn't have anything to take a screenshot of, but still they insist.

This cracked me up, lol. Anyway, I don't like it that much so I'll stick with GNOME when I get round to installing Linux again. Oh, I despise vi and I find Emacs much easier to use :D.

 

[graphic7]

This cracked me up, lol. Anyway, I don't like it that much so I'll stick with GNOME when I get round to installing Linux again. Oh, I despise vi and I find Emacs much easier to use :D.

It's not a matter of ease of use. It's a matter of being able to go to any UNIX/free-UNIX system in existence and being able to edit a text file. In case the system is pre-POSIX, there's always ed or ex.

Emacs is bloated and the chances of finding it on non-Linux systems is non-existent.

 

[master_coda]

It's not a matter of ease of use. It's a matter of being able to go to any UNIX/free-UNIX system in existence and being able to edit a text file. In case the system is pre-POSIX, there's always ed or ex.

Emacs is bloated and the chances of finding it on non-Linux systems is non-existent.

Warning! Personal preference != universal measure of goodness. Don't make the same mistake you see in every other emacs vs. vi "debate".

 

[chroot]

master_coda,

graphic7 has a very valid point. I used to work with a lot of UNIX-based supercomputers, and, while a few had emacs or some other editor installed, the vast majority did not. Their system administrators would remotely mount the server filesystems on their desktop workstations, and that's where all their cushy GUI editors were installed. If you had to drag a crash cart up to the back of the computer and plug into its serial console, you had only vi at your disposal.

Of course vi is not necessarily good, just ubiquitous. If you have a better editor around, use it -- whatever anyone likes is fine by me. But, everyone who does a lot of work with UNIX ought to have a rudimentary familiarity with vi, just in case.

- Warren

 

[master_coda]

Of course vi is not necessarily good, just ubiquitous. If you have a better editor around, use it -- whatever anyone likes is fine by me. But, everyone who does a lot of work with UNIX ought to have a rudimentary familiarity with vi, just in case.

But this isn't what graphics7 said. I saw "Actually I despise emacs more than I do vim, however I consider them both terrible" followed in the next post by an assertion that the primary reason that this is because vi is more universally available.

That's where the personal preference comes in. The fact that you like being able to use the same editor on almost any system doesn't generalize to everyone else. A lot of people don't have to use systems that only have vi, and even people who do have to use such systems don't always want to restrict themselves to lowest-common-denominator tools.

 

[abhishek]

http://moc.daper.net/

Edit: doh, my proxy acting up. FTP links failed; got a copy from a friend.

Hrm, the download links don't work. I can't find anything on it on sf.net either, so do you know any mirrors?

 

[graphic7]

But this isn't what graphics7 said. I saw "Actually I despise emacs more than I do vim, however I consider them both terrible" followed in the next post by an assertion that the primary reason that this is because vi is more universally available.

That's where the personal preference comes in. The fact that you like being able to use the same editor on almost any system doesn't generalize to everyone else. A lot of people don't have to use systems that only have vi, and even people who do have to use such systems don't always want to restrict themselves to lowest-common-denominator tools.

Well my preference for vi is somewhat personal, yes, but it's also practical. Sometimes you might not have the option of finding/building/install Emacs on a system you're on. Emacs has a load of dependencies, whereas, vi is basically dependent on an ncurses lib and that's about it.

For people that are on one system, as you suggest, use whatever editor you like. You're only most efficient with what you like to use. I just meant that it's highly advantageous to become proficient with an editor that is found throughout every UNIX/free-UNIX platform, and being stuck on Emacs is sort of like being `locked-down' to a single editor.

I do quite a bit of contract work, so I never know what I'll see on UNIX systems. I do know that 'vi' will be on them, though. Usually, I don't stay on a server/workstation long enough to have the time to install/build/whatever Emacs, nor the interest. In fact, I'd be quite humiliated if I walked up to a system and found that the editor I'm dependent upon, Emacs, isn't there. What do I do? I have to waste time installing it, when I could be getting paid for the work I supposed to be doing.

 

[dduardo]

abhishek, i got my copy through gentoo's portage. You'll have to wait until sourceforge it back up i guess.

 

[abhishek]

abhishek, i got my copy through gentoo's portage. You'll have to wait until sourceforge it back up i guess.

Yes, I got a copy.

I'll be switching to gentoo in a couple of days, good to know it's on portage.

 

[Alex]

:P I like my desktop looking pretty. I'm happy with good old fluxbox and a ton of tranceparency :).