95 lines
4.2 KiB
HTML
95 lines
4.2 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<title>Linux Expo Editor Wars! LG #30</title>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#A000A0"
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ALINK="#FF0000">
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center>
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<H1><font color="maroon">Linux Expo Editor Wars!</font></H1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:esr@thyrsus.com">Eric S. Raymond</a></H4>
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</center>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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Thursday night's epic paintball tournament was easily one of Linux
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Expo's most eagerly anticipated and talked-about events. The theme
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was ``Emacs versus vi and may the best editor win!'' At the appointed
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time, the would-be warriors trooped off to a patch of woods south
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of Durham and donned team T-shirts donated by O'Reilly & Associates. By
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happy coincidence, the 61 fighters split as exactly as possible
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down the middle, 30 on the Emacs team and 31 on vi's.
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Ominously, however, all three of the experienced paintballers in the
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crowd elected to fight for vi.
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<p>
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As we waited for mysterious rituals to complete in the paintball shed,
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there was much humorous analogizing--vi fans claiming that Emacs's
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guns ought to take forever to load, countered by Emacs partisans opining
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that vi fighters should be unable to move and fire at the same time.
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``You shall feel the power of the Lisp side of the Force!'' declaimed
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one black-masked Emacs fan a la Darth Vader, met by hoots of derision
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and yells of ``vi rules!''
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<p>
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Additional humor was provided by the boss paintball referee, who
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understood neither our theological disputes nor the lemur and gnu
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emblems on our team shirts. He gave up early and started referring to
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the teams as ``monkeys'' and ``cows'', much to the amusement of both sides.
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<p>
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Eventually, not too long after the official start time, we listened to
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a safety lecture, picked up our guns, face masks and
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glycerin-capsule ammunition and marched into the woods. Each team
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got a fortified fire base; the game was elimination, with the last man
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standing winning for his team.
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<p>
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Telling friend from foe turned out to be a bit of a problem, as both
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teams were wearing white T-shirts with black emblems and the colored
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arm bands we'd been issued were not really conspicuous--some truly
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valiant hackers were hit by friendly fire. There were heroic
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charges and stealthy ambushes, sniping duels and stand-up fights. The
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paintballs flew thick and fast, and the woods resounded with cries of
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``Out! Out!'' as pigment-splotched casualties exited the field, guns
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held over their heads.
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<p>
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The teams' combat styles were allegorically perfect. The vi guys were
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fast, aggressive and sloppy; the Emacs team was slow, tried to think
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things out and play tactically. Result? The vi guys waxed the Emacs
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team, winning three out of four games. Evidently (as many on both
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sides later agreed, amid much laughter) paintball rewards different
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virtues than programming.
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<p>
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The event was a success, and general kudos went to Mike Maher of Red Hat
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from whose brilliant and obviously twisted mind the concept originally
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sprang. Next year perhaps we'll tackle Perl vs. Python or Red Hat
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vs. Every Other Distribution or some other chronic flame war--and,
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hopefully, get different-colored shirts so we can tell each other
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apart!
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1998, Eric S. Raymond <BR>
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Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
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