Comments on: Everyone Who Tried to Convince Me to use Vim was Wrong

By: donh

donh — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 18:26:41 +0000

“I challenge anyone to work their way around code faster with HJKL than I can with arrow keys and/or mouse.”

Wrong battle. Fully vetted users navigate as much as possible using search commands, not motion commands. This is excellent motivation for being very thoughtful and consistent about how you name your code entities, and thereby makes locating yourself within the code virtually instantaneous. Your advice is like preferring race cars to bikes, when you are capable of teleporting.

Beyond that, it sets you up for further utilizing your previous searches inside more powerful commands.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:13:42 +0000

Just spend some time with vilearn or vimtutor to learn the basics. Then read VIM book. Not everyone has to be “vim master”. I use hjkl because in server rooms I have different keyboards (eg. PC, Sun) and no mouses. Through many years of practice it got into my muscle memory so even on workstations with mouse/arrow keys I prefer hjkl only. I also don’t use any external vim plugins so I can feel comfortable with pure vi on systems where it’s the only available interactive editor.

It’s important to remember that there isn’t one true way of using vim. If you feel it’s too hard for you, use something easier. If you use arrow keys and it works for you – great. If you need to be flexible with broad range of operating systems and hardware you need to invest some time (like with any other serious subject).

By: Novaterata

Novaterata — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:18:05 +0000

Why don’t you just start with vi-mode plugin in Eclipse (vrapper) or VsVim in Visual Studio, or Kate, or MonoDevelop. If you can handle just the navigation and mode switching, which i mean really should take a minute, then you don’t have to worry about anything else as you can still use the shortcuts your used to. I can’t imagine how this would slow you down, over time you’ll learn new tricks to speed up your text editing.

By: joan

joan — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 20:23:49 +0000

vi(m) is an editor that people learn to use in case they find themselves in an emergency situation (sometimes when the system is badly broken, the only text editor available is usually vi), so the only commands that one really needs to know are i (insert), (stop inserting), :q (quit) and :wq (write and quit). For everything else, you’re better off with a proper text editor. Such as Emacs.

By: alex

alex — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:34:02 +0000

Agree with the last sentiments. There are some ways to do specific processes faster than others, not necessarily all with VIM. Learn them all, not one or the other.

By: Flimm

Flimm — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:17:58 +0000

I only learnt Vim once I had a Vim master within arm’s reach of me every day at work. Whenever I got stuck, I could just shout a quick “help!” at him and he’d help me, it was quicker than searching for help on the Internet without knowing the terminology. Like most Vim users, he was a Vim evangelist, so he didn’t mind, I think :)

By: m0skit0

m0skit0 — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:05:28 +0000

Vi has some powerful features that (almost?) no other typical modern editor has (e.g. number of times to execute command). I suggest you using a “mixed” editor (e.g. viPlugin for Eclipse -http://www.viplugin.com/index.htm-) and start using Vi commands as much as you can instead of the editor’s mouse or shortcuts. This will make the learning curve less steep and you can always use your typical commands when you don’t know Vi’s. I’m no vi master, but seriously, once you start using some Vi commands (e.g. d, o…), you can’t live without them anymore :)

By: Jose Amengual

Jose Amengual — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:01:05 +0000

And for those like me that like plugins in vim/macvim now you have :

http://vim.spf13.com/

At least for me it has everything that I need and some pretty nice to have that didn’t know were out there.

By: void

void — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:16:42 +0000

vi is for server administrators. Why? Because you find it on any (*nix)server and it works perfectly with a [text-]shell. So that is the main reason to learn vi, it is simply the best editor – just looking at editors, not operating systems – when it comes down to a text file, a shell and an urgent task.

By: Tarun Elankath

Tarun Elankath — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:52:11 +0000

single BIGGEST productivity tip in VIM: Switch your Esc and Capslock Key – your pinky will thank you from the bottom of its innermost muscle.

Use AutoHotkey on Windows to easily to this.
On Linux use xev to get the keycode and then xmodmap.