Why not use the VSCode vim extension best of both worlds :)
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Ask HN: Is switching from VSCode to Vim worth it?
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Re: Ask HN: Is switching from VSCode to Vim worth it?
#12I used the vim extension to learn the basics. From my perspective vscode is an ide and it does some cool things. However, vim/neovim is more of a worldview. I'm much faster when I don't touch the mouse. I don't have to slow down how I think. It's upsetting to have to stop typing, moving, etc..and click a button or tab. So I'm more inclined to go faster.
However, it's not a skill developed overnight. It takes time to invest in the tool, but for me the payoff has been significantly increased productivity. I won't ever stop learning new vim skills though. It's both wide and deep. Vim just makes sense to me now, but it took a while to really get it.
Re: Ask HN: Is switching from VSCode to Vim worth it?
#134-5 years ago I was all about the editors with pretty UIs (VS Code, Brackets, Atom, JetBrains IDEs, etc). I thought Vim was dumb and outdated. Boy was I wrong.
I eventually decided to try out Emacs, and settled on Spacemacs, which comes with Evil mode pre-installed (a Vim emulation layer on top of Emacs), so I basically had to learn some Vim bindings. Now I'm on Doom, which uses them even more heavily. And boy do I regret not having learned this stuff sooner. So much faster and simpler than jumping through UIs and pointing and clicking.
If you haven't heard of it already, Vim/NeoVim come with a tutorial built-in, called Vimtutor. Definitely run through that for a quick interactive primer on how to effectively use the basics.
Also, the bonus is that Vim is much more lightweight and snappy than VS Code, even on much older and cheaper machines. So you'll feel at home anywhere you run it. The same cannot be said for VS Code.
Re: Ask HN: Is switching from VSCode to Vim worth it?
#14what are your goals? 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' - if you find that you are able to work comfortably with vscode with the vim extension, and it is meeting all your needs, then honestly that might be what works best for you. However, if you find that you are hitting walls with extensibility or flexibility, _then_ it's time to maybe consider a switch. in my experience of using vim for like a decade now, a success…
Thanks for taking the time to write this out. I’ve always been into shortcuts/efficiency when using computers, but vim has made me realize how just how deep the rabbit hole goes and I find it intimidating. With that said, since learning more about vim and why people like it, I find myself getting more and more frustrated every time I instinctively reach for the mouse in vs code or really anything, which while it’s no…
i think anytime you have to switch a tool, there's going to be a huge dent in productivity. you and i seem to have similar feelings about the mouse and the mental tax that can taint a development experience. what i will say is outside of the productivity dent, there isn't really anything that vscode can do that vim can't. embedded terminals, LSPs, 'command palettes', hell, even githubs Copilot can be achieved in vim.
in my experience the best way to can the fluency you are seeking is to delete vscode, or put it somewhere that you can't see on your machine. when you have a thing that ''''works'''' and you are trying to learn a new thing, it can be an anti-pattern to have such easy access to the thing you are trying to stop using. for example, when i switched to dvorak, i was most successful when i forced myself to only use dvorak, no qwerty, no exceptions. it slowed me down for a week or two, but necessity got me to where i needed to go. the same holds true for vim, that was the same approach i took. even if it means i'm slower for a little bit while i figure out motions, configurations, etc, it got me to where i am now, which is a place where i can do my job in vim (or in my case, evil(vim) mode in emacs) much faster than i could in any editor.
best of luck!
Re: Ask HN: Is switching from VSCode to Vim worth it?
#15I did what you're considering. I was tired of VSCode because of Electron and wanted something lightweight. Neovim suited me. But you should know that if you use the lsp, most of the language servers are written in Node. You should learn to configure them for performance, especially pyright, if you use Python. Look up Kickstart.nvim and try to follow that. And checkout telescope. It's amazing.
Re: Ask HN: Is switching from VSCode to Vim worth it?
#16> I used the vim extension for about a month (..) I thought I had comfortably got the movements inside a file down, but now that I’m trying to navigate medium/large projects, I see how much more I need to learn before I can “break even” and get back to my speed/comfort in vscode.
Keep in mind that even though vscode's vim extension is not bad, it has significant differences to the point it degrades the user experience and gets in the way.
Re: Ask HN: Is switching from VSCode to Vim worth it?
#17The biggest advantage of vim, besides the language for editing text in normal mode, is that you are really fast and it just feels like you never have to wait for your computer anymore.
Re: Ask HN: Is switching from VSCode to Vim worth it?
#18Stick with VSCode. “Editing code on the server”? This isn’t 2010. We use docker and continuous deployment, and if someone is trying to edit production code in the server something is deeply wrong.
Re: Ask HN: Is switching from VSCode to Vim worth it?
#19I know the feeling. I flirted with vim and later neovim for a few years on-off, but kept going back to vscode because i wasn't as fast in vim. I did stick with the vim keybinds in VSC though and, over time, each foray into vim lasted longer until the time came where I finally stuck with it.
I'd recommend using one of the pre-baked configs (LunarVim, Astro, NvChad) to get a taste for what a batteries included vim build feels like. If you're like me you'll use it for a while, tinker with the configs etc. until you reach a point where something annoys you and you'll build a config from scratch. Seeing a fully completed config and playing with it has been really useful!
Was it worth it? Hard to say, but I'm now at the point where all the vim stuff is muscle memory, and I'm now getting comfortable with macros etc. You reach a point where rather than thinking of editing code as an interaction with an interface you start to think of it as just editing code. It's a difficult concept to get across but the fact i rarely interact with a mouse has definitely led me to become less easily distracted while coding.
My custom config feels like what I imagine having a model railway would feel like. It takes a bit of maintenance and tinkering, but it does exactly what i want it to and I get a sense of satisfaction from keeping it up to date.
Re: Ask HN: Is switching from VSCode to Vim worth it?
#204-5 years ago I was all about the editors with pretty UIs (VS Code, Brackets, Atom, JetBrains IDEs, etc). I thought Vim was dumb and outdated. Boy was I wrong. I eventually decided to try out Emacs, and settled on Spacemacs, which comes with Evil mode pre-installed (a Vim emulation layer on top of Emacs), so I basically had to learn some Vim bindings. Now I'm on Doom, which uses them even more heavily. And boy do I r…
> jumping through UIs and pointing and clicking.
That's strange, most code editors have advanced keyboard shortcuts for almost everything you can do with pointing and clicking. You just have to learn the combos.