Ask HN: What Vim habits did you need to unlearn?

#1

Post by WonderAlmighty » Wed, Dec 18, 2024, 11:42 AM UTC

If you don't use Vim, know that it has probably the steepest learning curve of any text editor (or at least non-IDE editors) and many users pick up habits along the way they need to unlearn.

I'll start: I need to unlearn pressing `i` when I mean to press `a`. `i` moves one character back while `a` doesn't which is what I want most of the time.

And apparently many users need to get used to `h j k l` over arrow keys, though I already binded `CMD h j k l` on my mac since that's much more efficient than arrow keys.

Re: Ask HN: What Vim habits did you need to unlearn?

#2

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 18, 2024, 11:45 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What Vim habits did you need to unlearn?

#3

Post by djaouen » Wed, Dec 18, 2024, 12:04 PM UTC

`I` and `A` for opening at the beginning and end of lines respectively (rather than `0i` and `$a`)

Re: Ask HN: What Vim habits did you need to unlearn?

#4

Post by Twizzlewhisker » Wed, Dec 18, 2024, 12:23 PM UTC

I use `:wq!` every single time instead of `:x!`, and I think of it every single time. The muscle memory is faster than me recalling to use something different.

Re: Ask HN: What Vim habits did you need to unlearn?

#5

Post by qup » Wed, Dec 18, 2024, 3:00 PM UTC

I press ESC twice instead of once every time I want to get out of insert mode.

And the real problem is I have a binding to do ESC with 'jk' instead, but I always forget to use that one.

Re: Ask HN: What Vim habits did you need to unlearn?

#6

Post by djaouen » Wed, Dec 18, 2024, 5:19 PM UTC

qup wrote: post #5

I press ESC twice instead of once every time I want to get out of insert mode. And the real problem is I have a binding to do ESC with 'jk' instead, but I always forget to use that one.

> And the real problem is I have a binding to do ESC with 'jk' instead, but I always forget to use that one.

I can remember to use `jk`, but I can never remember to use `.` for repeating the last edit. :(

Re: Ask HN: What Vim habits did you need to unlearn?

#7

Post by qup » Wed, Dec 18, 2024, 6:09 PM UTC

djaouen wrote: post #6

qup wrote: post #5

I press ESC twice instead of once every time I want to get out of insert mode. And the real problem is I have a binding to do ESC with 'jk' instead, but I always forget to use that one.

> And the real problem is I have a binding to do ESC with 'jk' instead, but I always forget to use that one. I can remember to use `jk`, but I can never remember to use `.` for repeating the last edit. :(

most people do `jj`, i thought i was the outlier.

I use '.' a lot, but not nearly as often as I could if I planned my edits a little better.

Re: Ask HN: What Vim habits did you need to unlearn?

#8

Post by djaouen » Wed, Dec 18, 2024, 6:20 PM UTC

qup wrote: post #7

djaouen wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And the real problem is I have a binding to do ESC with 'jk' instead, but I always forget to use that one. I can remember to use `jk`, but I can never remember to use `.` for repeating the last edit. :(

most people do `jj`, i thought i was the outlier. I use '.' a lot, but not nearly as often as I could if I planned my edits a little better.

I picked up both habits at my first job in the industry. That was over 12 years ago now!

Re: Ask HN: What Vim habits did you need to unlearn?

#9

Post by wruza » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 12:38 AM UTC

Twizzlewhisker wrote: post #4

I use `:wq!` every single time instead of `:x!`, and I think of it every single time. The muscle memory is faster than me recalling to use something different.

Why do you need ! that often? Also ZZ (which I never use).

Re: Ask HN: What Vim habits did you need to unlearn?

#10

Post by wruza » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 12:45 AM UTC

Not particularly a vim habit but doing this:

  function foo() {|

  function foo() {
  }|Ox

  function foo() {
  ....
  }

I know that I can just {}, and then o/O any time, but for some reason I want that empty indented line which I delete half of the times anyway.