BTW it's :x to save and exit.
ZZ for the win (3 keystrokes vs 4 for :x)
I use command mode a lot, so have swapped ":" and ";". With that, :x + enter is 3 keystrokes, and hitting x is a bit easier than hitting z.
Bill Joy's greatest gift to man – the vi editor (2003)
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Re: Bill Joy's greatest gift to man – the vi editor (2003)
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
ZZ for the win (3 keystrokes vs 4 for :x)
I use command mode a lot, so have swapped ":" and ";". With that, :x + enter is 3 keystrokes, and hitting x is a bit easier than hitting z.
I aliased it so either : or ; work for :
I admit I typed :wq for more than a decade before learning about :x
Re: Bill Joy's greatest gift to man – the vi editor (2003)
#23I used Emacs for 5 years before learning vi. What a change! While Emacs tries to put the kitchen sink inside the editor, vi tries simply to be a keyboard interface to the rest of the system. I've never looked back since I learned this way of working.
Re: Bill Joy's greatest gift to man – the vi editor (2003)
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use command mode a lot, so have swapped ":" and ";". With that, :x + enter is 3 keystrokes, and hitting x is a bit easier than hitting z.
I aliased it so either : or ; work for : I admit I typed :wq for more than a decade before learning about :x
I've been doing :wq for so long that my fingers have already done it before I realize I should have done :x
Re: Bill Joy's greatest gift to man – the vi editor (2003)
#25I used Emacs for 5 years before learning vi. What a change! While Emacs tries to put the kitchen sink inside the editor, vi tries simply to be a keyboard interface to the rest of the system. I've never looked back since I learned this way of working.
I've tried several times to get into vim. I feel like it's similar to dvorak though - unless you use it 24/7 you won't develop the muscle memory necessary to use it efficiently.
Re: Bill Joy's greatest gift to man – the vi editor (2003)
#26It's amazing how fast one can edit text with vi once you get all the keys down. There used to be a video game that taught how to use VI. Is it still around?
> It's amazing how fast one can edit text with vi once you get all the keys down
People say this, but I feel the same about VSCode. Once you know a few shortcuts (esp. the multi-select and multi-cursor shortcuts), you can make incredibly powerful bulk changes to a file.
I wish there were a subreddit called "TextEditorWars" or something where a challenge is given, and you can submit a screen capture of you accomplishing the challenge as fast as possible in your editor of choice.
Re: Bill Joy's greatest gift to man – the vi editor (2003)
#27Let's not forget Bram Moolenaar, who also deserves credit for extending the work on Vi. Vim [Vi iMproved] is likely (along with NeoVim) the actual Vi editor most people are using these days.
What's the story with NeoVim exactly? I am trying it out on Linux because I got some recommendations that it's better than Vim, but I've run into some problems because for instance with setting up plugins and things, lots of times the documentation seems to be geared toward Vim, and sometimes I've gotten errors it's hard to figure out because of this.
It kind of gives me the perception there just aren't that many people using it, so it might be one of those tools which is technically better but doesn't have the critical mass of community to really be useful.
Am I off base there? I mean what are the tangible, user-facing advantages of NeoVim over Vim?
Re: Bill Joy's greatest gift to man – the vi editor (2003)
#28BTW it's :x to save and exit.
is it different on vim? I always just use :wq when I'm using vim, but then, i've never used plain old vi.
Re: Bill Joy's greatest gift to man – the vi editor (2003)
#29I used Emacs for 5 years before learning vi. What a change! While Emacs tries to put the kitchen sink inside the editor, vi tries simply to be a keyboard interface to the rest of the system. I've never looked back since I learned this way of working.
> simply to be a keyboard interface to the rest of the system
Can you expand more on what you mean by that? It's never really clicked with me what the exact value prop of vim is.
Re: Bill Joy's greatest gift to man – the vi editor (2003)
#30I used Emacs for 5 years before learning vi. What a change! While Emacs tries to put the kitchen sink inside the editor, vi tries simply to be a keyboard interface to the rest of the system. I've never looked back since I learned this way of working.
I've tried several times to get into vim. I feel like it's similar to dvorak though - unless you use it 24/7 you won't develop the muscle memory necessary to use it efficiently.
Using it 12/7 was enough for me for me to be become proficient. ;)