Vim Language, Motions, and Modes Explained (2023)

I use both Vim and Emacs, extensively, so I'd just like to share my experience with mode switching in Vim. Personally, I don't find Vim mode switching to be much of a problem while editing text. It has become muscle memory to stay in normal mode by default. After any insert-mode operation, I instinctively return to normal mode. It's just a habit at this point.

Take, for example, writing a for loop. I might type:

  for (int

Then, say, I pause briefly to think about the variable name. If you happened to look over my shoulder at that moment, you would find me in normal mode. Even if I only pause for a second, I reflexively return to normal mode the moment I stop typing.

Because of that, I don't really treat insert mode as a separate "place" in my mind. Let's say I want to insert the text "abc". I don't think, enter insert mode, type "abc", then return to normal mode. I just see it as a single action in normal mode that includes the key sequence "i a b c ESC".

Or say, I want to open a new line above and insert "xyz". Again, I think of it as a single operation in normal mode that includes the key sequence "shift+o x y z ESC".

This applies to all insert-mode operations for me. Normal mode feels like "home" and insert mode is just an editing phase I dip into when I need and exit. That's why it doesn't feel like I am constantly switching modes (even though I am).

One thing I really appreciate about Vim is that it just opens. And I don't mean speed, I mean not getting bunch of pop-ups nagging me to do something about a configuration, extension, feedback or whatever.

I'm not going to claim Vim's defaults are usable for most people, but my god can these IDEs just shut up and let me see my code? I'll go to the settings if I want to.

I feel like those trying to teach me Vim are the same who refused to learn to use VsCode.

Once configured, I can do the same than Vim. With more features.

I don’t know I edit a lot but I also really like vim motion. It gets really natural at some point. The mix of b and e to move around, using cw or ce to remove and start editing then getting back to moving around. Plus a lot of edit actually happens straight from normal mode (case correction, one character changes, short deletion).

You don’t really think about the modes because things flow naturally. It might also be due to the fact that I nearly never actually switch conscientiously into a mode. I always do actions which send me in insert (like c and o, very rarely I or A) and revert back to normal when done.

Plus vim has the advantage of making things like just remove everything between these symbols and set me in edit there very easy which is something I miss when I don’t have vim bindings.

Yes, it’s super handy to be able to record an Emacs macro and modify large text within seconds, something that would take me half an hour. Yes, it’s super cool to navigate text at lightning speed.

But honestly, I have seen engineers who work with the mouse to navigate, and use nano to edit text in the terminal, and IDEs from intelliJ to navigate their codebase, engineers who were 10x as productive as I was. Why? Because in the end navigating your text is not what determines engineering success. It’s convenient, yes, but that’s not the core challenge. These days devs using VS Code can be magnitudes more productive just because they focus on the things that matter.

Edit:

Don’t get me wrong. I love my (mechanical) keyboard. I hardly use the mouse. I have a shortcut for everything using Keyboard Maestro, Karabiner elements, and I use Emacs for text editing, and all of that makes me super fast using my computer. But all of that does not make you a better engineer (I am not an engineer anyway). So spending time on other qualities (being able to do research, to solve problems, to manage knowledge, to communicate well, to document well) is way more relevant for your success as an engineer.