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Don't use Vim for the wrong reasons (2020)

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Re: Don't use Vim for the wrong reasons (2020)

#2
> if you think it's everywhere

One of the counterpoint is vim not being available on Windows. But It is.

Not by default, but most critical stuff aren't there by default anyway and vim will be one of the easiest block to have ready.

Then Windows comes with WSL, where I think most people who even care in passing about vim will spend their time, so we're back to the editor they'd use on Linux anyway.

That was to me the main reason I went with Vim when I first touched an nuix system, and to this day that's still a good enough reason to keep using it where a full IDE isn't required.

Any system I've seen had a simple enough way to get vim, that hasn't changed.

Re: Don't use Vim for the wrong reasons (2020)

#3
I'm a big fan of Vim, but I hardly use it as my primary editor anymore (applies for Neovim as well).

I think the ecosystem is amazing, but I hardly have the patience to set things up to feature parity with other editors. Debuggers are the biggest missing/hard to configure feature.

I do, however, use Vim bindings in every editor that supports them (and extensions for browsers like Vimium).

The extensions/Editor functionality are hit-or-miss; some are missing key bindings that I use often, or features don't quite work correctly, but I find it much more enjoyable to use than the "typical" approach.

The VSCode one is pretty good (even has EasyMotion/Sneak out of the box, if that's your style), but often seems to slow down and buffer keystrokes on heavy load/undo seems very hit or miss.

Re: Don't use Vim for the wrong reasons (2020)

#5
What is the consensus on productivity with Vim? I have thought about trying out the keyboard only approach, but haven't wanted to invest time in it yet. When I see people on YouTube using Vim it slightly feels like there's a whole lot of keypresses happening, but not a lot is actually gained compared to using a mouse or even frequently it seems it takes a while to do something that is much quicker with the mouse. I understand half the point is to be able to keep your hands focused in one place, but how do people feel about the productivity?

Re: Don't use Vim for the wrong reasons (2020)

#7
One of my favorite things about using vim as my main IDE is, I can run it on a linux server. My work has me moving around the country. I program on a vim instance running on a remote server. I just need to carry a tiny laptop around.

I usually get an okay ping(edit- Incase anyone is wondering, I actually started doing this since one of my laptops once got lost while traveling. Airline did find mybag later, but the two weeks without it drove me crazy. Now, if I want I can just show up anywhere get a fresh laptop load up my ssh keys and im all set lol.

Re: Don't use Vim for the wrong reasons (2020)

#8
Counterpoint (or at least counter-consideration): Sometimes Vim is really, truly, absolutely the very best tool for the job and very much worth your time.

I learned Vim because I had to edit code through an ssh tunnel, limited to text only, and nano just wasn't cutting it any more. This is pretty much the exact thing vim was born to do, so it was a pretty clear win to learn Vim, despite the horrifying learning curve. And now I know Vim!

Re: Don't use Vim for the wrong reasons (2020)

#9
To be blunt, I think this is not good. The claims are dubious on a factual level (you really can get most IDE functionality in Vim, or at least in NeoVim) and it’s framed in such a discouraging, knowing way. I admit I might have found this motivating when I was younger (and that’s probably why it’s framed this way) but ultimately on net I think this is pointlessly intimidating.

Unrelated: Helix is a great vim-like editor that has a selection-first editing model that I prefer and requires much less configuration. https://helix-editor.com/

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