I think my recommendation as far as xemacs vs emacs goes is that, for a new emacs user, xemacs offers that one advantage of GUIs -- little pull down menus that help you use the editor before you learn all the esoteric keystrokes. Once you've taken advantage of that for a bit using xemacs -nw (no windows) on a terminal is just fine.
I've never tried to learn vi. I admit, if you just want to create a file of a couple lines in your administration of your box, starting x/emacs may seem like overkill. I always use $ echo "whatever needs\nto go here" > into.the.new.file I think the best part about emacs is that you can run it on windows -- and using it to navigate the file structure, delete, rename, and move files is simply a *joy* (well, compared to being stuck in windows in the first place). My only current complaint about emacs is more a complaint about screen. I'm going nuts not being able to use ^a to get to the beginning of a line..... If anyone uses emacs with screen, i'd love a chance to see your .screenrc. Cheerios, judith
