Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: I built an interactive course that helps you learn Vim faster

vimified.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 265 posts

Re: Show HN: I built an interactive course that helps you learn Vim faster

#221

Post by opan »

manx wrote: post #10
MatthiasPortzel wrote: post #3

My pet peeve is Vim tutorials that start with "use hjkl to move around" instead of "use `set mouse=a` to turn on the mouse." In my opinion you need to make sure that you are very clearly disclaiming that you are teaching a harder way of doing things in exchange for incredibly small productivity gains that will be realized years in the future, if ever. (This is basically a copy-paste of previous comments I’ve made, I…

Agreed. Hjkl only makes sense when using a keyboard layout where these 4 keys are located in a row. This fact made most vim tutorials useless for me, as I'm using the neo2 keyboard layout, where arrow keys are located in the middle of the keyboard and hjkl are not in a row. Using vim works well for me, and I can use hjkl for other keybindings.

I posted another comment on this, but I never found this to be an issue when using dvorak or workman. Just as I slowly relearned to type the letters at all and improved over time, I kept using vim and got used to hjkl being moved over time. It doesn't bug me at all.

Re: Show HN: I built an interactive course that helps you learn Vim faster

#222

Post by AlchemistCamp »

cheeko1234 wrote: post #167
seanp2k2 wrote: post #157

:set nu / whatever you want to find [return] i *edit stuff and use arrow keys for nav* :wq Or :q to quit without saving That’s all the vim most people need. The fact that less is installed on many more systems than nano is a testament to the bad assumptions too many devs make about who will be using these systems in the future. And yes, it’s not hard to "apt -y install nano" except at work where we have proxies and i…

Nano and commandline is good enough. If apt is available, Micro is even better.

I don't find Nano very productive or very easy on my previously RSI-suffering hands and wrists. VIM is so much better for me along those two dimensions that it's not even much of a comparison.

Re: Show HN: I built an interactive course that helps you learn Vim faster

#223

Post by AlchemistCamp »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #157

:set nu / whatever you want to find [return] i *edit stuff and use arrow keys for nav* :wq Or :q to quit without saving That’s all the vim most people need. The fact that less is installed on many more systems than nano is a testament to the bad assumptions too many devs make about who will be using these systems in the future. And yes, it’s not hard to "apt -y install nano" except at work where we have proxies and i…

This is equivalent to saying hunting and pecking on a keyboard and using only their index fingers to type is "all the typing most people need". Technically, it's true, but it's also sacrificing a lot of productivity that could be gained from a relatively modest one-off investment in learning a skill.

It's also derailing someone's Show HN with a very old and generic online argument.

Re: Show HN: I built an interactive course that helps you learn Vim faster

#224

Post by hyperhopper »

steakknife wrote: post #202
chadcmulligan wrote: post #171

Nicely done. Though I have to say - I gave courses on vi in the 80's but then IDE's and GUI's came along and I moved on. I will never understand why anyone still uses vi in the 21st century, except for occasionally editing a config file on a *nix box.

How is it that nobody seems to know that every major editor has either vim mode or a vim plugin. I love vim, but I almost never use it directly. I usually use JetBrains IDE with vim plugin. Best of both worlds.

I've used a great many editors/IDEs and within a day of installing any vim mode or plugin I find multiple inconsistencies or errors that make my life worse.

Exception being spacemacs/evil, which is why that's the only thing I prefer using over vim

Re: Show HN: I built an interactive course that helps you learn Vim faster

#225

Post by hyperhopper »

delusional wrote: post #8
MatthiasPortzel wrote: post #3

My pet peeve is Vim tutorials that start with "use hjkl to move around" instead of "use `set mouse=a` to turn on the mouse." In my opinion you need to make sure that you are very clearly disclaiming that you are teaching a harder way of doing things in exchange for incredibly small productivity gains that will be realized years in the future, if ever. (This is basically a copy-paste of previous comments I’ve made, I…

This may be a little elitist, but if you're not going to use vim the way it's really made to be used, why even bother? I get that `mouse=a` makes it more familiar, but if you're always going to reach for your mouse, you're never going to really get used to the motions.

You're conflating learning aids with actual usage.

Having mouse support gives you a superset of functionality. Often this can be useful, like if you have on your hand on the mouse using another application.

Saying "why even bother" using vim if you add features just makes no sense.

Re: Show HN: I built an interactive course that helps you learn Vim faster

#226

Post by ilvez »

lovehashbrowns wrote: post #126
mpalmer wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> an ordinary visual text editor Funnily enough, Vim is short for "Vi IMproved", and its predecessor vi is short for "visual"! --- Taking the time to learn Vim yields significant rewards if you're willing to meet it on its own terms. I certainly grant you that it's not for everyone. It's the agony and the ecstasy of deep tools. No pain, no gain. > The frustration is that probably there are fixes for all these things,…

These sorta combinations and things like visual block mode are why I can’t let go of vim. You can also do: set -o vi And get vim in your bash shell. Then you wonder what the default mode is, and it turns out it’s emacs and you can do wild things like ctrl-A to go to the beginning of the line. And now I cringe when ever I see someone painstakingly left-arrow for 30 seconds to edit something at the beginning of their b…

Didn't know about that. I'm using default shell shortcuts, which are different set of shortcuts. Like:

* Ctrl-u: clear line and start from the beginning * Ctrl-a: go to the beginning of line * Ctrl-e: go to the end of line * Ctrl-b: move backwards * Ctrl-f: move forwards * Ctrl-c: leave the command as it is, just cancel the command and start with new line * Ctrl-w: delete a word before cursor * Ctrl-h: delete a character before before cursor * Ctrl-d: delete a character after cursor * Ctrl-t: swap last 2 characters (this is one of my favourites in terms of lulz, I actually trained myself to use it :D) * ...

Pulled these out of my fingers, but there are more. Don't know the correct source to point to.

What's good about those is that they work by default and behind every computer.

Re: Show HN: I built an interactive course that helps you learn Vim faster

#227

Post by mastermedo »

Silica6149 wrote: post #82
mastermedo wrote: post #70

I love projects that popularize vim. But I think this one might be in a way too early stage to justify the pricing (assuming those 8 lessons are all there is).

Thanks for the feedback! The 8 lessons you mention are actually 8 chapters. There are actually 34 lessons right now (you can see the lessons if you click on the chapters to expand them). Please let me know if there are topics that you want to see, I wanna add what people want to learn!

Sorry, I meant 8 chapters. I read through the 34 lessons. I suggest you take a look at typingclub. 700+ lessons free of charge. Repetition, and metrics are the selling point. If you incorporate that model in vimified I think you’ll have way wider adoption.

Re: Show HN: I built an interactive course that helps you learn Vim faster

#228

Post by Silica6149 »

mastermedo wrote: post #227
Silica6149 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback! The 8 lessons you mention are actually 8 chapters. There are actually 34 lessons right now (you can see the lessons if you click on the chapters to expand them). Please let me know if there are topics that you want to see, I wanna add what people want to learn!

Sorry, I meant 8 chapters. I read through the 34 lessons. I suggest you take a look at typingclub. 700+ lessons free of charge. Repetition, and metrics are the selling point. If you incorporate that model in vimified I think you’ll have way wider adoption.

Thanks for the guidance! I'll look into how typingclub works, I'm new to this business stuff.

Re: Show HN: I built an interactive course that helps you learn Vim faster

#229

Post by palmtree3000 »

gofreddygo wrote: post #211
dash2 wrote: post #15

I really want to like vim and I love some things about it, like the ability to move chunks about with only the keyboard. But so many things about it kill me. Like, why can't I hit right at the end of a line, and move to the next line? Who thinks that is a good idea? Also, why do I have to have a special mode to insert things? Having to change modes just seems so complex and unintuitive. And why does the help system n…

I really want to like to swim and I love some things about it, like the ability to not sink when thrown in deep water. But so many things about it kill me. Like, why can't I just sit in the water, and float to the top? Who thinks that drowning by default is a good idea? Also, why do I have to have a special way to move my hands and legs? Having to coordinate my limbs just seems so complex and unintuitive. And why can…

I mean, these are all valid criticisms of the swimming experience, it just sounds silly because you can't edit swimming.

Re: Show HN: I built an interactive course that helps you learn Vim faster

#230

Post by lovehashbrowns »

ilvez wrote: post #226
lovehashbrowns wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These sorta combinations and things like visual block mode are why I can’t let go of vim. You can also do: set -o vi And get vim in your bash shell. Then you wonder what the default mode is, and it turns out it’s emacs and you can do wild things like ctrl-A to go to the beginning of the line. And now I cringe when ever I see someone painstakingly left-arrow for 30 seconds to edit something at the beginning of their b…

Didn't know about that. I'm using default shell shortcuts, which are different set of shortcuts. Like: * Ctrl-u: clear line and start from the beginning * Ctrl-a: go to the beginning of line * Ctrl-e: go to the end of line * Ctrl-b: move backwards * Ctrl-f: move forwards * Ctrl-c: leave the command as it is, just cancel the command and start with new line * Ctrl-w: delete a word before cursor * Ctrl-h: delete a chara…

This is where you can find a reference for the default emacs mode: https://catonmat.net/bash-emacs-editing-mode-cheat-sheet

Unless you’re super into vim, it makes more sense to learn the basic emacs keybinds ‘cause like you said, it’s almost everywhere.

Post reply on HN