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Ask HN: Is Vim still worth learning?

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Ask HN: Is Vim still worth learning?

#1

Post by harco »

Dear HN community,

since there are quite some comments highlighting the effectiveness of a good VIM setup and muscle memory of 10+ years, I would like to know your opinion on starting to get into it now (end of 2022).

For context: I'm a backend developer with 10+ years of experience, mostly using Java IDEs, and lately some vscode (for go, typescript, rust). I have some knowledge in vim, and can use it for basic text editing, but I still use the arrows for navigation, and found the "hjkl" navigation difficult. I'm somewhat experienced using linux and the terminal, and would be curious to dig deeper into more terminal-based workflows.

The question is: do you think it's worth the effort to learn using VIM more deeply today? The goal would be to at least be able to do the go and rust coding in vim, it doesn't need to be a full Java IDE. Bonus points for an opinion about "If yes, do you think VIM is still fine, or rather neovim? Or something fresh like helix?"

Thanks a lot!

Re: Ask HN: Is Vim still worth learning?

#2

Post by ggm »

Previously I would have said yes but if you aren't destined for systems administration, you can install tools which suit your muscle memory and workload better. VS or atom?

40 year vi and Emacs user btw. I miss classic vi. Nvi isn't quite there and small aspects of Vim grind my gears.

Re: Ask HN: Is Vim still worth learning?

#3

Post by ZeroGravitas »

If you're using vscode there's a book about learning vim inside it that's worth a look:

https://www.barbarianmeetscoding.com/boost-your-coding-fu-wi...

Core pitch:

> You may be wondering... Ok. If Vim is so good then... Why not just use Vim instead of Vim inside Visual Studio Code?

> Great question! The truth is that setting Vim to work with a feature set similar to modern text editors is not a trivial task. Features likes code completion, code navigation, in-editor error messages, etc, although supported by Vim don't work perfectly out of the box.

> Visual Studio Code and Vim together offer a very sweet spot that balance the ease of setup and super rich development user experience of Visual Studio Code with lots of the amazing features present in Vim.

> The translation is not yet perfect though. And if you're an experienced Vim user you may find some features missing. But all in all, VSCodeVim offers a very pleasant Vim experience outside of Vim.

Re: Ask HN: Is Vim still worth learning?

#4

Post by reginol »

Yes, but only the minimum necessary to use it reasonably effectively, as a last resort if you end up on a system without any other editors.

Using it as a daily driver is a waste of time when there are much more pleasant editors to do your work in, these days.

Re: Ask HN: Is Vim still worth learning?

#5

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

For system admin work, knowing the basics of vi can be really useful when you're suddenly faced with a non-booting system, but you don't need to know much - how to exit being the classic issue. I use vi/vim for really basic editing tasks and switch to something easier for anything more involved (geany being my current choice).

Re: Ask HN: Is Vim still worth learning?

#8

Post by Faaak »

johlits wrote: post #6

I use the Visual Studio VIM extension and I love it when I don't have a mouse. Keyboards change layout but the QWERTY keys stay the same.

Same here. I was an ardent vim user for 10+ years. Then I found VSCode and switched entirely to it.

However, the VIM extension allows me to keep some vim efficient shortcuts which I found are faster than not using them (i.e. I try not to use the mouse at all).

And of course, it's useful when you must ssh into a server sporadically

Re: Ask HN: Is Vim still worth learning?

#10

Post by msla »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #5

For system admin work, knowing the basics of vi can be really useful when you're suddenly faced with a non-booting system, but you don't need to know much - how to exit being the classic issue. I use vi/vim for really basic editing tasks and switch to something easier for anything more involved (geany being my current choice).

I came in to say this: Learn basic vi (not the extended stuff Vim added) and you'll rarely be out a text editor, even on very stripped down systems. (In my experience, only nano is more common, and that comes with a keystroke cheat sheet at the bottom of the screen while you're using it.) Learn Vim if you actually like vi and want a more featureful experience in the same basic paradigm.
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