I love Vim, it's just a shame it takes 200 years to setup properly.
But a very enjoyable 200 years it must be said!
Learn Vim (2021)
11–20 of 215 posts
Re: Learn Vim (2021)
#12I defaulted to Nano when I picked up linux, and that unfortunate choice has bitten me in the butt.
I learned vim when I picked up linux, now I work at a company with a customized emacs tool we have to use. Doh it never ends...
Re: Learn Vim (2021)
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd honestly point folks towards Helix[0] these days if they don't already have something keeping them on neovim/vim. There's very little in the ways of needing to configure Helix; it has built-in most functionality that you'd find with batteries-included vim "distributions" and it works out of the box with the installed LSP servers on your system. [0]: https://github.com/helix-editor/helix
AFAIK is not fully compatible with Vim keystrokes
Correct. If you've got no background in vim, it might be a good thing Helix has broken "backwards compatibility" in order to have more cohesive key-bindings.
Re: Learn Vim (2021)
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
AFAIK is not fully compatible with Vim keystrokes
Correct. If you've got no background in vim, it might be a good thing Helix has broken "backwards compatibility" in order to have more cohesive key-bindings.
But then you'd not be comfortable with the hundreds if not thousands of other packages out there that use vim bindings.
Re: Learn Vim (2021)
#15I love Vim, it's just a shame it takes 200 years to setup properly.
Setup how? I've used vi/vim daily as my main editor for the past 35 years or so, over that time I doubt I've put more than 20 total hours into its setup. I've been using some evolution of the same .vimrc for decades and it's only accumulated a couple dozen lines. The longest setup task I can remember was a few years ago getting MacVim to launch with one window per folder (with files as tabs, in most cases that equates to one window per repo, handy when I'm working across a couple different ones), but that was all shell work, not within vim itself.
Re: Learn Vim (2021)
#16I love Vim, it's just a shame it takes 200 years to setup properly.
I'd honestly point folks towards Helix[0] these days if they don't already have something keeping them on neovim/vim. There's very little in the ways of needing to configure Helix; it has built-in most functionality that you'd find with batteries-included vim "distributions" and it works out of the box with the installed LSP servers on your system. [0]: https://github.com/helix-editor/helix
Helix itself looks amazing, but the keybindings make me stay away from it. Even if they are better than the original, I don't want to learn another set of "non-standard" keybindings that I need to switch between only to use an editor.
Re: Learn Vim (2021)
#17I defaulted to Nano when I picked up linux, and that unfortunate choice has bitten me in the butt.
Having only used Nano since picking up Linux 2 years ago, I’m not sure what I’m missing. Can you make a case for me to learn Vim?
> Can you make a case for me to learn Vim?
If you're coming from nano, I'd point to:
1) UI improvements like better syntax highlighting, split windows and tabs, and mouse support.
2) A cohesive language of key bindings that allows you to easily construct and perform commands like "delete everything from the cursor up to the next quotation mark" or "lower-case this paragraph".
3) A huge library of scripts and extensions to add or extend features like syntax highlighting and indentation rules for new languages, Git integration, or language server support (which provides IDE-style features like jump-to-definition, error/warning indications, and autocompletion)
Re: Learn Vim (2021)
#18I defaulted to Nano when I picked up linux, and that unfortunate choice has bitten me in the butt.
Having only used Nano since picking up Linux 2 years ago, I’m not sure what I’m missing. Can you make a case for me to learn Vim?
Its not that I wanted to use vim, but either it was the tool of choice for other people, or the tool of choice for other tools (like yay/paru on Arch linux (and yes I eventually learned default editors can be changed...)).
Re: Learn Vim (2021)
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Correct. If you've got no background in vim, it might be a good thing Helix has broken "backwards compatibility" in order to have more cohesive key-bindings.
But then you'd not be comfortable with the hundreds if not thousands of other packages out there that use vim bindings.
I think folks might be over-estimating the difference between the Helix and vim. IME, adding "ge" to Vimium[0] was good enough to avoid any conflicting muscle-memory. I think many folks configuring their vimrc are deviating equally as far or farther than the Helix defaults.
I'm not sure that I buy the purity argument -- almost all "vim modes" in other software are interpretations of the vim key-bindings and not an embeded vim/neovim engine. As a result, they all have their own caveats and folks using vim get used to functionality that exists exclusively in their vimrc. Often times vim mode just means supporting "hjkl".
[0]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/vimium/dbepggeogba...