Linux Mag then asked: “So you didn’t really write vi in one weekend like everybody says?”

No. It took a long time. It was really hard to do because you’ve got to remember that I was trying to make it usable over a 300 baud modem. That’s also the reason you have all these funny commands. It just barely worked to use a screen editor over a modem. It was just barely fast enough. A 1200 baud modem was an upgrade. 1200 baud now is pretty slow.

Maybe it’s just me spending too much time on Hacker News, but in a world obsessed with making “the next Facebook” over a weekend, it’s refreshing to see that an application of such importance doesn’t need to be hacked up over a weekend, but can take it’s time and mature before entering the market place.  

via The Register