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Vim ported to iOS

applidium.com

31–40 of 133 posts

Re: Vim ported to iOS

#31
Yet another emacs/vim article, and I always look for an excuse to get excited but never can.

It seems that the speed at which I think/code is much slower than the speed at which I type. So I can't imagine that I would benefit from skills in emacs/vim-fu.

Is this preconception valid, or can anyone debunk?

Re: Vim ported to iOS

#32
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they're called "guidelines" for a reason, and nowhere in them is the word "prohibited" used.

Except that in the vast majority of cases, not following them really hurts your chances of getting into the App Store. Try to find a few other apps on the App Store that you can exit from within the app, to get a sense of just how much of a "guideline" this really is.

This may be the one-in-a-million chance to disregard that guideline. A big rule in interface design is to do what users expect. In Vi/Vim, this means quitting on :q. Assuming that this is non-standard enough that Apple would go find somebody who knows Vim to handle the review, that person would (and obviously did) know this.

Re: Vim ported to iOS

#33
post #10

"Unfortunately, without an escape key it’s not possible to leave insert mode. That’s why by default the backslash key (‘\’) is mapped to the ‘Esc’ key. You’re free to overwrite this setting by unmapping the backslash key." from http://applidium.com/en/applications/vim/support/

[deleted]

Re: Vim ported to iOS

#34
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they're called "guidelines" for a reason, and nowhere in them is the word "prohibited" used.

Except that in the vast majority of cases, not following them really hurts your chances of getting into the App Store. Try to find a few other apps on the App Store that you can exit from within the app, to get a sense of just how much of a "guideline" this really is.

Waze has a "Switch Off" command, although that seems to make sense since it's a way to stop running GPS.

Maybe they got a pass since ":q" is a basic Vim command. People are going to type it - what should they do instead? Nothing?

Re: Vim ported to iOS

#35

Yet another emacs/vim article, and I always look for an excuse to get excited but never can. It seems that the speed at which I think/code is much slower than the speed at which I type. So I can't imagine that I would benefit from skills in emacs/vim-fu. Is this preconception valid, or can anyone debunk?

VIM is not only about typing. It's about editing, which involves making a small change in one place, then navigating somewhere else, and making another different small change etc. This is where VIM is unbeatable, because of ridiculously many fast ways to navigate and edit intelligently (in a very small amount of keystrokes). You don't have to type 120 WPM do be faster in VIM, but if you are a fast touch typist, you can get insanely fast in VIM.

Besides once you can edit faster, it's surprising how your "speed of thinking" also improves dramatically :D.

Re: Vim ported to iOS

#36

Yet another emacs/vim article, and I always look for an excuse to get excited but never can. It seems that the speed at which I think/code is much slower than the speed at which I type. So I can't imagine that I would benefit from skills in emacs/vim-fu. Is this preconception valid, or can anyone debunk?

This is a circular argument (or some sort of thing like that), but if you ever find yourself at a *nix command line prompt and need to edit a file, you can be certain that vim will be available. Basic familiarity with it can be helpful.

Personally, I used to write a ton of perl inside Vim as a student, but these days I'm in VS all the time, and only use Vim like I would use Notepad - when I want to do quick edits in a file that isn't worth the heavy handed-ness that is starting my IDE.

I'm like you - I spend more time thinking about my problems, and typing them isn't usually a hindrance. If I find that my typing/keyboard navigation speed is holding me back, it's a sign that I designed myself into a corner where I have to write a ton of boilerplate/repetitive code.

Re: Vim ported to iOS

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They remapped backslash to esc. Kind of a pain since you have to go through 2 keyboards to get to it, but it works.

How are you supposed to code without backslashes? Are they anticipating never needing to escape anything?

[deleted]

Re: Vim ported to iOS

#39
post #10

"Unfortunately, without an escape key it’s not possible to leave insert mode. That’s why by default the backslash key (‘\’) is mapped to the ‘Esc’ key. You’re free to overwrite this setting by unmapping the backslash key." from http://applidium.com/en/applications/vim/support/

You'd think this would be a great use for a custom gesture. Actually, having various gestures available as mappable objects would be pretty cool...

Re: Vim ported to iOS

#40

Yet another emacs/vim article, and I always look for an excuse to get excited but never can. It seems that the speed at which I think/code is much slower than the speed at which I type. So I can't imagine that I would benefit from skills in emacs/vim-fu. Is this preconception valid, or can anyone debunk?

The less time you spend typing, or thinking about typing, the more time you have to think about coding.
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