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What Is Vim?

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Re: What Is Vim?

#91

Post by djaouen »

kazinator wrote: post #72

Vim is not only an editing language, but a fast-starting editor with a small-ish native executable, and small run-time memory use. This facet is typically not ported into other editors that have a Vim mode. Vim runs natively inside virtual machines and containers, on resource-constrained embedded systems, and on remotely accessed machines. Another aspect is that Vim can be operated entirely using a terminal emulator,…

> but a fast-starting editor with a small-ish native executable, and small run-time memory use.

In spite of these so-called "flaws", I still prefer Emacs!

Re: What Is Vim?

#92

Post by metaltyphoon »

cassepipe wrote: post #56
smusamashah wrote: post #48

How do you explain "w" and "wq" to save and quit the editor with "verb adjective object" model? These two and "i" is all I remember about vi. Or is vi a different thing from vim and this model doesn't apply?

I don't understand why people keep talking about :wq when :x has been a thing for so long now

This is probably because :X encrypts a file so too easy to make that mistake?

Re: What Is Vim?

#93

Post by WhyNotHugo »

lambda_lord wrote: post #4

Helix uses a selection-first action model: you select the word/paragraph/whatever you want to perform an action on, then you change/delete/whatever on that selection. I think this is more intuitive than the "verb object" model Vim uses: if you get your selection wrong in Vim, you then need to undo the action and try again. In Helix, I can see what I am about to manipulate before I make the action. I think at this poi…

Helix splits the "select" and "verb" portions into two separate actions, so you can't easily repeat the last whole action (which you can do in Vim by pressing the dot key).

Which one is more intuitive is probably subjective, but personally, I find "dip -> delete inside parenthesis" far more intuitive (and closer to my line of thinking) than "select inside parenthesis. delete selection".

Re: What Is Vim?

#94

Post by metaltyphoon »

cassepipe wrote: post #59
hashkb wrote: post #14

I love this take. I was a die-hard Vim/Neovim zealot... but these days I absolutely love the ecosystem of tools that support normal mode. For so long hand-cramping emacs keybindings were sort-of-standard-in-a-few-places. If you're not convinced vimming is the best way to interact with your editor, you probably haven't seen a really proficient vimmer.

And meanwhile in every thread or article about vim, it is very rare to mention remapping Caps Lock to Escape (or the other lesser IMHO lesser options ) even though one third of user do it. The other two third are deluded tool fetishists that are ready to suffer that their most important key is the furthest away from the home of row because "you get used to it" even if that's just an unfortunate historical accident. I…

> it is very rare to mention remapping Caps Lock to Escape

I change mine to Ctrl. This way escape for me is Ctrl + [. Ctrl is too useful to be in an awkward position.

Re: What Is Vim?

#95

Post by slightwinder »

> There's a Vim mode in every single mainstream code editor out there.

Is it really a vim-mode, or a vi-mode? I mean, most of those are already very limited, but does any of them actually support vim-specific evolutions/changes?

And isn't the real question here: where does generic modal editing end, and when does vi(m) starts to display its specific personality?

Re: What Is Vim?

#96

Post by gmassman »

hexomancer wrote: post #39
chrismorgan wrote: post #9

> There's a Vim mode in every single mainstream code editor out there. And they’re always frustratingly incomplete and/or buggy. Some motions will be unimplemented, or will behave incorrectly, especially with regards to boundaries around whitespace inclusion or exclusion in a motion. Things you added to Vim and got used to are unavailable, and so your ysa") to put parentheses around the string your cursor is on just…

Can you give example of vim features that you miss in the vscode plugin? Mainly because I likely don't know about them and I would like to add them to my toolkit (the surround thing is not a vim feature, it is a plugin, although the vscode plugin has that too)

It’s been a long time since I used vscode (~5 years) so my experience may be out of date. But I recall the vim plugin missing the quickfix list and :cdo. Also there were quirks with y and p that didn’t happen when using vim (maybe extra whitespace getting inserted).

Re: What Is Vim?

#97

Post by SlackingOff123 »

chrismorgan wrote: post #9

> There's a Vim mode in every single mainstream code editor out there. And they’re always frustratingly incomplete and/or buggy. Some motions will be unimplemented, or will behave incorrectly, especially with regards to boundaries around whitespace inclusion or exclusion in a motion. Things you added to Vim and got used to are unavailable, and so your ysa") to put parentheses around the string your cursor is on just…

Both the VSCode vim extension and the IdeaVIM plugin for Intellij support surround. There's still some plugins that I miss in those implementations, but both projects are gradually adding support for more.

Re: What Is Vim?

#98

Post by kylebenzle »

mysteria wrote: post #84
kazinator wrote: post #72

Vim is not only an editing language, but a fast-starting editor with a small-ish native executable, and small run-time memory use. This facet is typically not ported into other editors that have a Vim mode. Vim runs natively inside virtual machines and containers, on resource-constrained embedded systems, and on remotely accessed machines. Another aspect is that Vim can be operated entirely using a terminal emulator,…

The reason I chose Vim over Emacs is simply because of the fact that it's available literally EVERYWHERE. I've honestly never seen a UNIX system which doesn't have Vi or Vim installed by default. Emacs is more hit and miss.

What does Vim offer over Nano?

After using both I settled on Nano years ago and still don't see how my workflow would improve with Vim.

Re: What Is Vim?

#99

Post by shreddit »

kazinator wrote: post #72

Vim is not only an editing language, but a fast-starting editor with a small-ish native executable, and small run-time memory use. This facet is typically not ported into other editors that have a Vim mode. Vim runs natively inside virtual machines and containers, on resource-constrained embedded systems, and on remotely accessed machines. Another aspect is that Vim can be operated entirely using a terminal emulator,…

So does nano

Re: What Is Vim?

#100

Post by syndicatedjelly »

kylebenzle wrote: post #98
mysteria wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason I chose Vim over Emacs is simply because of the fact that it's available literally EVERYWHERE. I've honestly never seen a UNIX system which doesn't have Vi or Vim installed by default. Emacs is more hit and miss.

What does Vim offer over Nano? After using both I settled on Nano years ago and still don't see how my workflow would improve with Vim.

No one is trying to convince you to use Vim over Nano. Use whatever makes you productive
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