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Why, oh why, do those nutheads use vi?

viemu.com

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Re: Why, oh why, do those nutheads use vi?

#11
post #5

I want to meet a dvorak keyboard user who is passionate about vi.

I'm a Colemak user and still really like Vim. I have to do a bit of mapping to get things comfortable but still it works well for me.

I've been learning Colemak off and on and am a bit worried about using it with Vim.

What mappings do you use (particularly for hjkl)? My first instinct was to map them to something more comfortable, but lots of other apps use those keybindings so I feel like it might be better to just learn to use them as-is.

Re: Why, oh why, do those nutheads use vi?

#13
post #10

I'd be interested to know how much of the stuff presented in the article is actually present in plain vi (not vim). If you mean vim, then say vim, not vi. They are two different things.

What's the biggest OS distribution that does not have vi mapped to vim by default these days?

Re: Why, oh why, do those nutheads use vi?

#14

I want to meet a dvorak keyboard user who is passionate about vi.

Pleasure to meet you. Not sure how much passion you require. I'm not exactly head-over-heels with vim, but I have been using it for about 7 years and dvorak for about 3. Anything in particular you want to ask?

I imagine the mnemonics make it work reasonably well, but what about hjkl? Do you really get used to having those spread around?

Re: Why, oh why, do those nutheads use vi?

#15
post #10

I'd be interested to know how much of the stuff presented in the article is actually present in plain vi (not vim). If you mean vim, then say vim, not vi. They are two different things.

What's the biggest OS distribution that does not have vi mapped to vim by default these days?

Last time I installed Arch, it did not. Also checking Scientific, it does not (assume also RHEL/CentOS).

Re: Why, oh why, do those nutheads use vi?

#16
post #10

I'd be interested to know how much of the stuff presented in the article is actually present in plain vi (not vim). If you mean vim, then say vim, not vi. They are two different things.

What's the biggest OS distribution that does not have vi mapped to vim by default these days?

The Solaris servers I am on all day at my job (when I'm not procrastinating on HN, that is).

Re: Why, oh why, do those nutheads use vi?

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems quite powerful, but overall vi still overwhelms me with all the options and functionality... I'm trying to learn more about vi/m (and emacs) as I get more into Linux development, but I think a lifetime of Windows has damaged me, mentally

In fact learning vi/m is a lot like learning to play a music instrument. It is a pain to start using vim. But if you reach a certain level you start improving more and more. Concerning vim, it should takes some weeks to be as efficient than with notepad. I written this article which also might help you: http://yannesposito.com/Scratch/en/blog/Learn-Vim-Progressiv... Don't give up! It will pay faster than you think.

I read your article a few days ago, great stuff. I agree vim is a pain in the beginning, and I only recently went to using it full time. But even after two weeks of full time use a lot of the commands are already starting to get "embedded" in my fingers.

Re: Why, oh why, do those nutheads use vi?

#18
One of the great things about vim is that even if you use it as your regular editor (I use MacVim), you tend to learn something new every time you read a new article. Today I learned about the '.' command.

Also, old discussion on same article: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=151637

Re: Why, oh why, do those nutheads use vi?

#19
Don't ever start using vi. After you do, any text editor that you are forced to use that doesn't have vi key bindings will give you fits and make you cry.

Learning vi is your standard process of enlightenment and elation followed by a lifetime of disappointment. Think about how you'd feel if you ate the best meal of your life at age 13, and the restaurant where you ate it went out of business the next day.

You'll be frustrated by all other software. You'll wander around trying to explain to other people why the thing you had was so good, and it was so easy, and that nothing else compares, and wouldn't it be great if everyone did things this way.

Exactly like the author of this article.

You have been warned.

Re: Why, oh why, do those nutheads use vi?

#20

One of the great things about vim is that even if you use it as your regular editor (I use MacVim), you tend to learn something new every time you read a new article. Today I learned about the '.' command. Also, old discussion on same article: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=151637

Yeah, I also learned about the -i] commands. Can't believe I didn't know about them before...
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