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

>Like, why can't I hit right at the end of a line, and move to the next line

What do you mean by this? Do you mean the right arrow key?

The mode paradigm was definitely weird to me too at first, but it eventually makes sense, especially when you start using macros.

I agree about the help system - it hasn't been very helpful to me either. I usually am better off consulting stackoverflow or vim's wiki for how to do something.

Vim took me quite a bit of time to learn beyond the basics, but once I learned it, it became a productivity boon. It's nice to have the same powerful text editor available wherever I ssh to, right in the terminal, in the same place I'm using all my shell commands.

I think this is the wrong way to think about computing, though I sympathize, because I also used to think this way until I reflected on a podcast I'd heard about how when the computer mouse was invented, it's little known that a second very sci-fy-y device was also intended to be used as a peripheral, one which you put on your other hand like a glove and moved in all sorts of ways in order to direct your computer. Ultimately this device didn't catch on, but it's not necessarily the case that just because something isn't trivial to start using that it's bad -- on the contrary, both kinds of tools are useful.

Tools which are eminently transparent in how you use them are great to get started, and to continue with if you don't want to spend any more time.

But so are tools which you need to actively invest effort into using. These can unlock ways of using something which are more powerful and rely on the time you put in to learn them -- true for a computer, but there are plenty of other devices in the world where this is the case too.

> an ordinary visual text editor

Funnily enough, Vim is short for "Vi IMproved", and its predecessor vi is short for "visual"!

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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, which if I were an expert I would know.

I would submit that if you were an expert, you would not have the same list of gripes. To wit:

> Like, why can't I hit right at the end of a line, and move to the next line?

This is a fair complaint, but one that's actually never occurred to me as a Vim user, because:

> Why do I have to have a special mode to insert things?

It's a core part of Vim's design! In fact, insert mode is The other mode (Normal mode) is where the real power is. It's not so much about moving chunks of text around with the keyboard as about moving the cursor.

Vim divides normal mode key commands into motions and operators. operators add/remove/change text, and motions move the cursor.

For instance:

- `d` is an operator deletes text.

- `w` is a motion that moves the cursor to the start of the next word

- `12w` does this 12 times (practically every motion can be repeated like this)

But the rubber really meets the road when you combine them.

If you hit `d` once in normal mode, nothing happens: you've started a command but Vim is waiting for you to finish it by entering a motion. `dw` deletes from the cursor up to the start of the next word (you can guess what `d12w` does).

> And why does the help system never tell me what I want?

Perhaps start with `:help help` :)

If I'm interpreting "cutting whole lines" correctly, in vim that's "dd" in normal mode. Then you can paste (put) with "p".

I agree discoverability is not great; to be honest I can't remember how I discovered the plethora of commands I use, though I do have a habit of reading the help a decent amount. That's how I discovered "g?" (Rot13) :D

I write C# three days a week. Is learning vim worth it?