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Ask HN: Can you show me how fast coding is in vim?

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Ask HN: Can you show me how fast coding is in vim?

#1
I have tried to learn vim, and I am on the fence about which editor to use. I have tried Atom, Eclipse, Emacs, etc. VSCode just came out and Facebook has its Nuclide editor on the shelf. People hold vim as a pinnacle of editing technology.

Can you show me with a short screencast why vim is superior? And, why it is worth spending the time to learn, not only mentally and visually, but also mechanically with my hands.

Thanks.

Re: Ask HN: Can you show me how fast coding is in vim?

#5
I don't have time to make a screencast but, I don't see a huge difference between VIM/Emacs to be honest. Most devs seem to like Emacs more for the easy complexity I suppose.

For modern development I wouldn't compare vim (a text editor) to Eclipse (an IDE). I'd say learn vim if you think you might ever find yourself in a shell needing to do things. No Xwindows and maybe not even emacs. I personally use vim for everything I do but, that's because I've used it for 21 years now. The second reason is I develop by always taking the easiest path (kiss theory) and generally don't need an IDE for most things. The third reason is that I started developing carpel tunnel in my right hand using the mouse and decided to not use a mouse as much as possible.

Re: Ask HN: Can you show me how fast coding is in vim?

#8

I don't have time to make a screencast but, I don't see a huge difference between VIM/Emacs to be honest. Most devs seem to like Emacs more for the easy complexity I suppose. For modern development I wouldn't compare vim (a text editor) to Eclipse (an IDE). I'd say learn vim if you think you might ever find yourself in a shell needing to do things. No Xwindows and maybe not even emacs. I personally use vim for everyt…

Just about every IDE has a vim-mode plugin available. While they're not perfect, they give you much of the efficiency while not having to give up the trappings of an IDE.

I also have struggled with mouse-related RSI. Switching to trackballs helped a ton for me.

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