jed: An editor with good behavior

I have a copy of the vim cheatsheet poster in A3 size, on the wall over my desk.

Not because I am a giant vim fan, but because even after using vim for years now for almost everything I edit, I still can’t remember even simple navigation commands.

And so I refer to that on a daily basis. I like to kid myself and say even Einstein needed a telephone book to remember his phone number, but the reality is that not everything vim does is crystal-clear intuitive.

And before the emacs fans start drooling over themselves, I’ve used your gilded icon as well, and it’s no better. Double- and triple-control-key combinations don’t impress me as any more intuitive, necessarily.

So both parties are guilty, and there’s nothing to be done at this point. Let’s split the baby in half and call it justice.

But wait! A new contender appears!

“New” is misleading; jed is hardly a newcomer, with filestamps in the source repo as early as 2000, if that is to be believed.

Longevity is an asset, but so are drop-down menus, folding features, split windows, module support, cut-and-paste keystrokes, and even mouse support.

(And if you really really need those triple-control-key sequences to feel at home, jed will accomodate and pretend to be something it’s not.)

In fact, jed behaves more like a full-featured text word processor than a simple text editor, and it may be it’s as much the former as the latter.

jed is my editor of choice when vim frustrates me and when emacs is overkill.

Because sometimes, after smacking your head between two equally unaccomodating alternatives, it’s nice to find something calm and pleasant, with good behavior.