PC/VI Wanted... Any pointers?

[Bill Fulton [Sys Admin]]

In article <520 at elan.UUCP> kg at elan.UUCP (Ken Greer) writes:
>From article <8301 at ihlpf.ATT.COM>, by kattke at ihlpf.ATT.COM (Kattke):
>>>I am looking for a vendor that sells a version of VI that will
>>>run on an IBM/PC... 8088 based machine.
>> The user's manual for mine says: Custom Software Systems ...
>CSS went out of business a year or so ago.  Anyway, MKS has
>one which we use internally and actually sell too.  It's $149,
>available in the U.S. from...
>       Elan Computer Group, Inc.

Some comments from a guy who has used both CSS and MKS versions of vi:

I'm still using CSS vi, out of habit. I plan to convert to MKS vi, because:
  > I am very, very, (...) happy with the MKS Toolkit (vi PLUS many,
    many Unix software tools, including ksh!!!). Vi comes with the Toolkit,
    and interfaces well to the ksh in the Toolkit.
  > CSS is out of business. This degrades support.  :-)
  > The MKS imp is a good one, including a couragous attempt to interface
    to 'the shell', including filters.

If you go with MKS, I'd suggest the following:
  > Buy direct from MKS. In my experience, the support has been good
    to excellent. Also, they offer special support contracts, including
    guaranteed updates (which about pays for the maint contract).
  > Get the full 'Toolkit', not just the vi editor. MKS offers vi
    separately, or as a part of the Toolkit package. Skip a few lunches
    and spend the extra bucks on the full package!

A brief plug for MKS: The 'Toolkit' makes DOS damn near bearable. I've
done some pretty serious production and development work with this package.
Quality is 'reasonably good', support is very good.
I think this is quite relevant to this newsgroup - the editor, shell, and
utilities in the MKS Toolkit make it possible to keep a modicum of sanity
when you have to use both *nix and DOS. (There are other similar products,
but I haven't heard of one that comes close to the breadth of the Toolkit).

Bill ("vi or death") Fulton