8/21    What is the emacs equivalent of % in vi? I've tried (require 'paren)
        in my .emacs but it doesn't seem to work.
        \_ You don't need all that shit.  Use ED.  No mode of ED's ever sucked.
        \_ like M-x find-matching-paren or something..
        \_ why use emacs?
           \_ you're joking right? I didn't think people were actually
              debating this stupid issue anymore.
              \- it depends on the question ... a hostile "why should i a
                 vi/pico/jove user use emacs?" is best answered "you use what
                                    \_ as compared to say vi's perl-mode?
                                       \_ Lack of a perl mode is better than
                                          a perl mode that fucks up your
                                          formatting.  -tom
                                       \_ as compared to cperl-mode, which
                                          should be the default --pld.
                 ever ratshit editor you want". a sincere "why would it be
                 worth switching to the OTE" is a reasoanble question ... but
                 the most interesting are more abstract ones like "should cs
                 students today be taught emacs-only? emacs and vi? tex?
              \_ What about stuff like gnus, mh-e, M-x shell, M-x man,
                 etc?
                 \_ Why do you want to use your text editor to do that stuff
                    anyways? there is always :! of course, if you can't just
                    open another xterm.
                 ms word?" ok tnx --psb
           \_ M-x compile, gdb, gnus, mh-e, cc-mode, java-mode, php-mode,
              shell-script-mode, perl-mode, make-mode, etc.
                                 \_ emacs perl-mode sucks.  -tom
                                    \- look, i dont expect you to actually
                                    beatout gods-perl-mode but if you have some
                                    solid suggestions write them up and post
                                    the to gnu.emacs* or comp.emacs ... that
                                    is if you are capable of anything beyond
                                    this incessant braying and carping. --psb
                                    \_ And of course you send all your
                                       suggestions on how to improve vi to
                                       the vi developers.  Idiot.  All you
                                       need to see how bad emacs' perl mode
                                       is is a single << operator and some
                                       HTML.  And that reminds me, emacs
                                       HTML mode sucks too.  -tom
                                       \_ And your comparison is to say
                                          vi's Perl and HTML modes perhaps?
           \_ VIM has something similar to the M-x compile. Syntax highlighting
              and indenting support for most languages is there too. There
              is no integration with gdb however. By the way, where are
              you ED fans? I'd like to hear your opinions..
        \_ either follow what the first poster suggested, or (better),
           look for flash-parens.el on the web. it is superior. also,
           you use emacs because is configurable and allows you to write
           scripts for it. vim doesn't let you do that. -ali
          \_ but Lisp is so slow and nasty, unlike asm... ok tnx -- psb #2 fan
           \_ You can customize vim using its (awkward yet useful) built-in
              language or, if that is not enough, you can compile vim with
              perl and/or tcl support.
              \_ you can also compile nvi (which is much more pleasant on
                 first experience than vim) with perl and tcl support, but it
                 doesn't have all of the (clanging) bells and (piercing)
                 whistles..  it just, well, edits text
                 \_ I wish it were able to, well, edit your (purple) text.