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How Did Vim Become So Popular?

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Re: How Did Vim Become So Popular?

#141

Post by spekcular »

ricksharp wrote: post #92

Does anyone have a good video comparing vim speed coding vs vscode using built in editor features? I’ve been using vscode for years and the YouTube videos that demo vim features are shallow (like how to enter a blank line - really?). I can do the same thing I have seen in vim videos without memorizing a bunch of strange key bindings all while being able to edit code instantly without changing modes. I would love to s…

I've found keyboard-only vim is much slower than a mouse for editing papers, because the edits are often random-access and vim isn't great at that. You also can't use SyncTeX (which is amazing) without a mouse.

Re: How Did Vim Become So Popular?

#142

Post by jasone »

omaranto wrote: post #117
jasone wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched to kakoune from vim in early 2020, and I really like it (previously: emacs 1994-2004, vim 2004-2020). It's worth prefacing what follows by saying that I heavily relied on the visual selection features in vim. kakoune provides a limited orthogonal toolset that composes extremely well. After a week using kakoune I felt at least as confident with its command language as I did with vim's after years of use. As…

Could you comment specifically on this part of the comment you replied to? > Kakoune actively makes it harder to do the normal thing people do in a text editor: jump around a file and make specific edits to individual lines. Instead, a bunch of normal movement commands (such as forward and backward search) leave extra cursors in your wake, forcing you to press an extra key to dismiss them otherwise you'll get erroneo…

It's quite common for the selection created by motion to have immediate subsequent use. I do use the ';' or ' ' commands to clear the selection or end multi-selection, but typically only once per major operation. On top of that, it is common to start some new editing sequence which automatically resets or extends the selection in a natural way.

Multiple selection has surprised me in its usefulness. It took a bit to get used to multi-step operations (select, then move/expand/match, then modify, etc.), but the beauty of this is that it's possible to incrementally undo these steps, unlike having to get the whole thing right in one go in vim. I find myself using regex captures in multiple selection -- another example of how I confidently use basic kakoune functionality where I used to rely on recorded macros in vim.

Re: How Did Vim Become So Popular?

#144

Post by VectorLock »

Ever year or so I look at the nice sugar that things like VScode or other IDEs have and think "it has vim mode, those nice things would be good to have" - autocomplete, things like that. So I try the IDE and I get so tired of _in the way_ it gets that I just go back to vanilla Vim.

Then I think "maybe I'll try these IDE like plugins for Vim" and get so frustrated by the Vim plugin system that its back to vanilla Vim pretty quickly.

Re: How Did Vim Become So Popular?

#145

Post by duckfruit »

busterarm wrote: post #90
licebmi__at__ wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely, even now as I use emacs, I'm a 100% evil. It's just so natural (once you get it), that I don't know how other bindings (like ctrl-[whatever]) are prevalent in most other software, it's not like they are more memorable or intuitive. Fun story: I was into Free/Libre software as a teen, when I learnt how to move around in vi(m) and in my first tech gig (as a sysadmin), I was interviewed by some greybeard who…

It's proof enough that you'll figure it out. Years of interviewing people for my own teams has shown me that understanding your tools (especially to the point of being opinionated about them) is probably the #1 indicator of success.

Indeed. Someone with the fortitude and discipline to get really good at their tools can probably pick up whatever you throw at them.

Its also a good sign that they might be into technology for its own sake, which also doesn't hurt.

Re: How Did Vim Become So Popular?

#147

Post by octorian »

cat199 wrote: post #94
cyberbanjo wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always assumed the opposite with how people say emacs is a nice OS and poor editor... What does Vim over emacs?

this is huge flamewar territory, but this is a bit 'off' question wise - alot of the current state of things is due to historical precedent - some details: - (original) vi was on most unices from the mid-80s onwards out of the box - (gnu/lucid) emacs was an additional install (not getting into other emacs flavors - original teco emacs was fairly small i believe). - original vi just had basic editing and at some point…

> vim vs vi: most obvious difference (IMHO) feature wise is that vim adds vimscript IMHO, the most obvious difference is that in vim you can kinda just press "i" and pretend its a normal text editor. You know, the kind anyone coming from another OS would already be familiar with. Try doing this in regular vi, and you'll be cursing and pulling your hair out.

Today, I don't put much stock into anyone expressing an opinion in the "vi vs emacs" wars, because 90% of the people claiming a preference for vi seem to actually be vim users. Using vim is a much more pleasant experience than using good old classic vi.

Re: How Did Vim Become So Popular?

#148

Post by perl4ever »

foobarian wrote: post #49
halotrope wrote: post #20

For me it is being able to efficiently navigate a file without leaving the home row (Gotta learn touch typing first). Once you understand the commands follow a composable grammar it is really like a superpower for dancing around text. „Go down 5 lines, move right two word, replace the contents of the brackets“. I don‘t use the actual editor all that often but have vim mode enabled in all my „real“ editors like VSCode…

Honestly, this stuff is not a bottleneck for me. The things that both emacs and vi do, and vi does a little better: 1) Supports more than basic text manipulations. Rectangle selection and deletion? Check. Regex operations? Execute shell command on selection and replace inline? Record a macro and execute N times? Modes? Stuff like that. 2) I know it really really well to the point I don't need to look anything up to u…

>Rectangle selection and deletion? Check. Regex operations?

These are vital features from my perspective, but completely orthogonal to whether an editor has a post 1980s interface.

And it's also nice to be able to handle large files.

Re: How Did Vim Become So Popular?

#149

Post by ncmncm »

mahmoudhossam wrote: post #74
dannycastonguay wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Helpful tip) map caps lock to escape: https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Avoid_the_escape_key

I went one step further and swapped escape and caps lock keys on all my machines and haven't regretted it so far.

I cannot remember the last time I wanted to use CapsLock--more than 30 years ago, anyway.

By far the most irritating thing about others' keyboards is they have not disabled it yet. Second most is that Ctrl isn't there instead.

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