Be aware of the fact that people can be extremely loyal to their text editors, and that this can sometimes escalate to something of a flaming holy war of vi(m) users versus emacs users. There will be many people trying to advocate the benefits of both text editors to you as you begin to learn how to program and try and navigate your way around a *nix system.

My advice is use vi for a week. Use emacs for a week. Get to know them well enough to be able to use both and choose for yourself which one of the two, if at all (contrary to wha it seems, there are alternatives), you want to use. And use what is best for you and what you are most comfortable with.

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Rozallin J. Thompson
The Webmistress who doesn't hesitate to use strict;