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

Vim 8.1

vim8.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 93 posts

Re: Vim 8.1

#31

Post by samatman »

ssijak wrote: post #2

I want to learn Vim and tried several times (with vim modes form Intellij mainly) but failed under pressure to get actual things done. I see great potential and I know I have to sacrifice 1-2 month of productivity to get up to speed but I fail every time.

The thing that (finally) worked for me was to pick a language that I wasn't using at work (C in this case), and do a project in it using exclusively vim.

Once I learned the basics, I only use vim itself for commits and small scripts, but this made using vim /modes/ in spacemacs and VSCode practical.

Without the basic vocabulary it just feels like turning on 'cripple mode' while you're trying to get work done.

I'm still not an expert; I heavily reuse the same ~15 commands. I've found learning that vocabulary to be very much worthwhile.

Re: Vim 8.1

#32

Post by sushisource »

notheguyouthink wrote: post #22

Man I wish I could switch back to Vim. GUI frontends for Neovim has made me want Vim so bad, but I just can't get away from Kakoune. The model of select first, action after (reverse of vim) is so so much better for me. Kakoune just gives me so much clarity over I'm doing at any one time. I guessed too frequently in vim :/.

Really want to try kak but the lack of IDE plugins stops me completely. I pretty much exclusively use IntelliJ or VSCode with the vim plugin, especially in IntelliJ the auto completion is just so much better and so much less effort to set up than a million vim plugins.

Re: Vim 8.1

#33

Post by danielbarla »

ssijak wrote: post #2

I want to learn Vim and tried several times (with vim modes form Intellij mainly) but failed under pressure to get actual things done. I see great potential and I know I have to sacrifice 1-2 month of productivity to get up to speed but I fail every time.

I think you can successfully migrate to vim modes by using less than optimal vim habits initially. I don't think anyone is going to go through the entire action list and instinctively remember all of them, and be able to use them at a moments notice.

As an example, my transition was something like this: I'd use a vim plugin, and use say 5- 7 basic actions + movements like `cw`, `c$` `i`, and keep it limited to that for a while. If you're frustrated, simple insert mode (`i`) is all you need to get back to your comfort zone. Pretty soon, you get those ingrained, and then start looking for other tricks to learn. A few years later, it's second nature and you're probably slightly more productive. Bottom line is that it shouldn't take you 2 months to break even, hopefully.

Re: Vim 8.1

#35

Post by crehn »

jsat wrote: post #29
jmcphers wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been a heavy Vim user for 20 years, and I hear people say this all the time. Recent converts especially love to write breathless blog posts exalting Vim's editing model as the One True Way, but the truth is that if your editing speed is the bottleneck for your productivity, you must surely be some kind of software engineering deity. There's absolutely no shame in sticking with a model that works for you if you'r…

I think editing friction can take a toll on your total mental energy. I also think that workspace automation can significantly improve the speed at which you complete a task. Vim macros make repetitive tasks on any size file a breeze.

I concur. It's often easier to reduce the negative effects of friction than it is to increase the positive effects of efficiency.

Re: Vim 8.1

#36

Post by eckza »

danielbarla wrote: post #33
ssijak wrote: post #2

I want to learn Vim and tried several times (with vim modes form Intellij mainly) but failed under pressure to get actual things done. I see great potential and I know I have to sacrifice 1-2 month of productivity to get up to speed but I fail every time.

I think you can successfully migrate to vim modes by using less than optimal vim habits initially. I don't think anyone is going to go through the entire action list and instinctively remember all of them, and be able to use them at a moments notice. As an example, my transition was something like this: I'd use a vim plugin, and use say 5- 7 basic actions + movements like `cw`, `c$` `i`, and keep it limited to that f…

This is how I've learned! I'm about 8 years in with vim, but I'm no vim-journeyman; I just learned enough to get started. Movement, find-and-replace, splits. The basics.

And every time I wonder if there's a better way to do whatever I'm doing, I look it up, and - lo and behold - I learn some cool new feature that I can organically introduce into my workflow.

Learning vim in this way has been immensely satisfying. I look at time spent in vim as an investment in my career as a software developer. For as long as I'm in this industry, I'm going to need to edit text. vim can do just about anything and everything; will run on any architecture, past, present, or (it's safe to assume) future; and has allowed me to reduce the amount of time that I spend doing repetitive editing tasks.

Re: Vim 8.1

#37

Post by dozzie »

notheguyouthink wrote: post #22

Man I wish I could switch back to Vim. GUI frontends for Neovim has made me want Vim so bad, but I just can't get away from Kakoune. The model of select first, action after (reverse of vim) is so so much better for me. Kakoune just gives me so much clarity over I'm doing at any one time. I guessed too frequently in vim :/.

> The model of select first, action after (reverse of vim) is so so much better for me.

You mean, like the visual modes in Vim? Where you select text before running a command on it?

Re: Vim 8.1

#38

Post by hjek »

notheguyouthink wrote: post #22

Man I wish I could switch back to Vim. GUI frontends for Neovim has made me want Vim so bad, but I just can't get away from Kakoune. The model of select first, action after (reverse of vim) is so so much better for me. Kakoune just gives me so much clarity over I'm doing at any one time. I guessed too frequently in vim :/.

The Qt "gui" front end for Neovim was pretty much indistinguishable from a terminal emulator, last time I tried it. I don't see the appeal in it.

Kakoune looks pretty interesting on the other hand. It even has a Clippy. I'll be trying that one out!

Re: Vim 8.1

#39

Post by epage »

notheguyouthink wrote: post #22

Man I wish I could switch back to Vim. GUI frontends for Neovim has made me want Vim so bad, but I just can't get away from Kakoune. The model of select first, action after (reverse of vim) is so so much better for me. Kakoune just gives me so much clarity over I'm doing at any one time. I guessed too frequently in vim :/.

Kakoune's model is slick and occasionally tempts me but I stay with vim for the rich ecosystem of plugins and that its on nearly every system.

Re: Vim 8.1

#40

Post by xur17 »

toxik wrote: post #6
brunoluiz wrote: post #4

I tested :terminal but I still prefer my tmux + vim config (seems more productive). But, I have to say that for ssh connections this will be really useful.

I'm psyched about what this means for debugger integration!

That would be amazing - I use tmux + vim, and the one thing it's lacking is debugger integration.
Post reply on HN