That lack of programmability is probably what ultimately will doom vi. It can't extend its domain.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I was surprised about vi going in, though, I didn't know it was in System V.
I think one of the interesting things is that vi is really a mode-based editor.
The reality of most software development is that the consequences of failure are simply nonexistent.
V is like a mythical situation. It's an allegory for what could happen. V has philosophies within it that actually warn against things like that happening.
As a rule, software systems do not work well until they have been used, and have failed repeatedly, in real applications.
However, when Java is promoted as the sole programming language, its flaws and limitations become serious.
The problem is, we're moving to software-as-service, which can be yanked or transformed at any moment. The ability of your PC to run independent code is an important safety valve.
I am greatly proud of the fact that 'Doom' is one of those things where everything that has a 32-bit processor has had 'Doom' run on it, and I think that's been one of the great aspects of having it be open source: having everything out there means that people have maintained that and kept it up to date.
From day one our next generation system will run all our exsisting software - so that gives us a head start.
The fundamental problem with vi is that it doesn't have a mouse and therefore you've got all these commands.