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VIM Modes Transition Diagram

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Re: VIM Modes Transition Diagram

#11

Post by Gabler »

platz wrote: post #5
tyler_ball wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely don't let this discourage you. I've only been using vim for about six months and I do not know all the commands and modal changes on this diagram. The great thing about vim is you do not need to know very much to be productive, but every day you learn something new that will make you more productive. While this is a great reference writing a vim plugin or looking up the behaviour of a specific command, I d…

I agree, it's not really a learning tool (for a novice). Some commands here are pretty obscure; you wouldn't use some of them very much or at all, but that's not evident in the diagram. And you also have the right idea about learning vim incrementally ( http://yehudakatz.com/2010/07/29/everyone-who-tried-to-convi... ), instead of the "learn everything in parallel" approach that some advise.

Thanks for the link. I'm only just starting my second year of University now and I feel like skills with Vim will be an invaluable thing to have for my course.

Re: VIM Modes Transition Diagram

#12

Post by msutherl »

platz wrote: post #4
Gabler wrote: post #2

As someone who is thinking about learning Vim, this diagram is severely daunting.

I was just watching Bret Victor's Inventing on Principle talk and thus learned about Larry Tesler. He says Larry Tesler dedicated his life to removing modes from software back where was no such thing as modeless editing. Perhaps this is why.

I was at that talk and, let me tell you, there was magic in the room: http://vimeo.com/36579366

Re: VIM Modes Transition Diagram

#13

Post by msutherl »

johncch wrote: post #10
platz wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just watching Bret Victor's Inventing on Principle talk and thus learned about Larry Tesler. He says Larry Tesler dedicated his life to removing modes from software back where was no such thing as modeless editing. Perhaps this is why.

I watched the talk and was caught off guard by his mention of Larry Tesler. I can understand why because that did usher an era of easier to use text editors. However, I'd like to emphasize that there is always a place for tools that are sufficiently complex such that it allows the craftsman wield it proficiently. Past a certain point of simplification, a tool would lack the necessary vocabulary to express things succ…

I find it interesting that emacs is basically the modeless Vim. I imagine that there are modes involved, but chorded input is basically modeless. I wonder if it makes a difference to the craftsman. Perhaps I should learn emacs to understand the difference.

Re: VIM Modes Transition Diagram

#14

Post by WildUtah »

This diagram doesn't include any of the q-macro system, hardly any of the :commands, and only a very vague box saying "operator" for a large class of actions and motions Vim users are constantly engaging in.

In short, this is a woefully incomplete diagram of a summary of a subset of the VIM Mode Transitions. Maybe it could be a start for a serious effort down the line.

I've been using Vim as my main editor for over a dozen years. Nevertheless I'm sure there's mountains of stuff I've never learned or understood that is also left out here, but I'm such a rank beginner that I just don't know to mention it.

Re: VIM Modes Transition Diagram

#15

Post by platz »

WildUtah wrote: post #14

This diagram doesn't include any of the q-macro system, hardly any of the :commands, and only a very vague box saying "operator" for a large class of actions and motions Vim users are constantly engaging in. In short, this is a woefully incomplete diagram of a summary of a subset of the VIM Mode Transitions. Maybe it could be a start for a serious effort down the line. I've been using Vim as my main editor for over a…

Perhaps this is the starting point then? https://gist.github.com/1886716

Re: VIM Modes Transition Diagram

#16

Post by almost »

msutherl wrote: post #13
johncch wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watched the talk and was caught off guard by his mention of Larry Tesler. I can understand why because that did usher an era of easier to use text editors. However, I'd like to emphasize that there is always a place for tools that are sufficiently complex such that it allows the craftsman wield it proficiently. Past a certain point of simplification, a tool would lack the necessary vocabulary to express things succ…

I find it interesting that emacs is basically the modeless Vim. I imagine that there are modes involved, but chorded input is basically modeless. I wonder if it makes a difference to the craftsman. Perhaps I should learn emacs to understand the difference.

I'm currently going in sort of the other direction. I'm usinge evil-mode which is VIM implemented in Emacs. Emacs does have many of the powerful features of VIM but what it lacks are composable commands. So what in Emacs would take NxM separate commands can be supported in VIM/Evil-mode with N edit commands and M movement commands (not to mention the modifiers like (i)nside or (a)around). I find myself intuitively using combos ive never used before, it just makes sense that they would work whereas I would have had to learn them individually in Emacs. What Emacs has that VIM lacks is it's amazing customisability, I love switching to scratch and changing how my editor works on the fly, I also totally rely on Org-mode along with my customisations of it (I even use it to generate my website!). I'm sure it's not for everyone and I wouldn't recommend it to someone without Emacs, or at least VIM, experience but for me Evil-mode really feels like the best of both worlds.

(commenting from my phone so please excuse weird autocorrect thingies)

Re: VIM Modes Transition Diagram

#17

Post by VMG »

Gabler wrote: post #2

As someone who is thinking about learning Vim, this diagram is severely daunting.

It's as useless as a state diagram of any other software you use. Imagine a state diagram for Chrome or Firefox and how scary that would look.

Re: VIM Modes Transition Diagram

#20

Post by ZeWaren »

I think this would be even better if the nodes would be links to documentation. That way if you discovered a node you knew nothing about, you would just click it instead of having to google it.
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