[sylpheed:35783] Re: Sylpheed

[Steve O'Hara-Smith]

On Tue, 3 Sep 2013 21:51:47 -0700
"cgw993 at aol.com" <cgw993 at aol.com> wrote:

> > I am using Linux. I use the editor vi.
> 
> That is what vi and Emacs are for, now it is starting to make a little
> more sense.  Any reason why you prefer vi over Emacs?

	You should be warned that this question strays into religious
territories. Let's just say that, among people who use text editors a lot,
choosing a text editor is a very personal thing.

> What does a program like vi do that is special if the code can be edited
> with Notepad? 

	Fundamentally nothing, but they do contain many features that make
life easier when faced with complex editing tasks (powerful search and
replace, many named cut buffers, macros ...). It's a bit like the difference
between a cordless SDS drill and a brace and bit - both make holes
perfectly well but one is much handier if you have a lot of holes to drill.

> One thing that I did not realize was the fact that one need to uninstall
> the program, then edit the code, then reinstall.

	No need to uninstall the program until just before you install the
modified version. You can also arrange to install the modified version in a
different location so that you can leave the known good install intact.

> Understanding the order you stated above helps a ton.   I thought maybe I
> could change some code while leaving the program as it was and then to
> try out out, run it (double click the icon). The only programming I do is
> on VBA in Excel and in that case that would be a run time compiler, that
> makes more sense to me now.    I do more clearly see what compiling
> actually is and why the program would need to be reinstalled in the case
> of C programs.   In order to even write a single line in C, which I have
> not done nor do I know the language, I have to figure out what is the
> overall structure of what is needed to even begin.  A general purpose map
> or diagram indicating how these programs fit together and why is
> something I am looking for on youtube, google images etc.

	You would probably be well served by following one of the many C
tutorials available online. Learning a language at the same time as trying
to grok the structure of a mature and fairly complex application is likely
to be hard work.

-- 
Steve O'Hara-Smith <steve at sohara.org>