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Build muscle memory with your favorite editor

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Re: Build muscle memory with your favorite editor

#32

Post by danso »

dlikhten wrote: post #24
danso wrote: post #8

This is neat, but one thing it misses is the "reward." Not a gamification award, but the visual feedback from hitting a keyboard shortcut and seeing it actually happen, which helps reinforce the connection from muscle-action to program-action. Another important component is seeing the scenario. Seeing the words "Duplicate line" doesn't hit the same neurons as seeing the situation in the text-editor that toggles my br…

False. Why gamify, I actually found this incredibly useful all in itself.

You misunderstood me. I said a reward, but not gamification. The reward when you complete a successful duplicate line shortcut is that you see a duplicate line. This helps associate result with muscle action. I'm arguing that this cements the memory even more.

Re: Build muscle memory with your favorite editor

#34

Post by BrixtonBoy »

kecebongsoft wrote: post #16

This is great, I've seen a web game that you can use to practice vim schortcuts. But since this one's about building muscle memory, I don't see how this is going to be better than the actual use of the editor itself. Using the actual editor not only gives you the actual feeling but also challenge you with the real text editing tasks. CMIIW. But this is still useful if you just want to see a cheatsheet or not knowing…

I think the point is that when starting out with a new text editor you aren't moving fast enough to use these shortcuts that often, so it's harder to internalize them. With this you just get rapid repetition, so that when it comes time to use them you have the command at the ready in your head. Of course I'm speaking from the point of view of someone just starting out using an editor. For someone that has already used any of these editors for any length of time this sit does seem kind of worthless.

Re: Build muscle memory with your favorite editor

#36

Post by zethraeus »

jlebar wrote: post #13

I wonder if this actually teaches you the right kind of muscle memory. I have no difficulty with hjkl for navigating in Vim, but I had trouble associating those keys with the string "move one character". Mapping from the description of the command to the key is not the kind of muscle memory I use all day.

Agreed. Perhaps a block of text/code with lines highlighted along with instructions on how/what to change them? That would give the right visual feedback and should be totally doable.

Re: Build muscle memory with your favorite editor

#37

Post by humanfromearth »

jlebar wrote: post #13

I wonder if this actually teaches you the right kind of muscle memory. I have no difficulty with hjkl for navigating in Vim, but I had trouble associating those keys with the string "move one character". Mapping from the description of the command to the key is not the kind of muscle memory I use all day.

Agreed. Same problem here. Perhaps a visual display of what needs to be done would be a lot more useful. I have no clue of how this could be done though. At the same time if you want to build muscle memory, just use the damn editor and you get it eventually :)
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