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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 functi…
Don't use Vim for the wrong reasons - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33850674 - Dec 2022 (14 comments)
(2020)
For example:
> From sketchy terminal integration, to being single-threaded, via the lack of anything resembling a proper internal plugin API, nothing in Vim can be leveraged to give you a convincing Integrated Development Environment.
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 u…
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 functi…
Did you try Lazyvim?
I tended to par Atom down to the essentials, but just like everyone else got gradually more and more frustrated with the performance and instability, so I began to play with vim and quickly discovered it's not so easy to jump in. I didn't want an IDE, but I did want some modern features like git integration, so my initial vim plugin count was reasonable. What I really struggled with initially was the lack of standard cursor movement, with select/deselect (autoreturn to insert), i.e what basically everything other input field and editor behaves like - even once I was comfortable with the vim way, switching between browser input fields and vim just felt annoying - eventually I configured my way around that so I can have the best of both.
Going full vim took some back and forth. Using it on servers out of necessity really helped. One day, when an Atom update broke my configuration yet again, I deleted it and went all in on vim, I'm not sure how long it's been now, probably 6 years - and I'm still learning.
So yeah... one does not simply recommend vim, but it is awesome, and weird.
My favourite thing about vim... I've had the same config from the start, it has never broken due to an update. I value that so much.
Vim’s :terminal is better than win10 terminal. And than Konsole too, for that matter. (Maybe I mistaken “integration” for something else.)
to being single-threaded
Is this a problem? All language servers run async in different processes. I don’t think vscode is multi-threaded either. Multi-processed sure. Threads are mostly dead.
I’m not a vim missionary, don’t use it, don’t learn it, don’t scratch where it doesn’t itch. But these arguments make little sense. The rest varies from okay to low quality bait, tbh.
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 u…
Here is how I think about it: the depth of these keyboard-based editors allows for a kind of progressive mastery and you decide how far to pursue it. Plenty of people use Vim in a very rudimentary way, barely using any of the features, and they still might prefer it. Others know certain slices of the functionality available, but everyone knows a different slice depending on how they want to edit. The point is it’s sort of an open space with lots of texture and customizability, which is sometimes how professionals like their tools. It lets you sort of build the tool into what you want it to be. And that can be true even without elaborate customization: even with a stock NeoVim install, figuring out over time which subset of features you care about is a kind of customization.
One tip I have: if you use VS Code, try the Vim extension. Or whatever IDE you use, see if it has a vim mode. That is by far the best way to learn, and it may well be the best way for you to use Vim long-term. You don’t have to change editors, you don’t have to configure anything, you can just focus on moving the cursor around in a new way.