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Why I can’t stop using Vim

kornerstoane.com

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Re: Why I can’t stop using Vim

#41

Post by edanm »

broodbucket wrote: post #27
edanm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh c'mon. Us vim users are seen as "those crazy people" by the majority of other programmers, and they have at least some point :)

I am the only person in my office that uses Emacs. Everyone knows vim. Everyone loves vim. You think you're the crazy one?

Jokes aside, outside of certain areas which are fairly unusual, most programmers have never used vim OR emacs and I would guess that most don't even really know about them. It can be hard to imagine in the echo-chamber that is the online tech scene, but really most developers just use IDE's and get on with life.

Re: Why I can’t stop using Vim

#42

Post by WorldWideWayne »

danford wrote: post #32

I went back to Sublime after using Vim for a while but then realized I was going to have a terminal open 24/7 anyway so what's the point? Then I learned how to use a terminal multiplexer and now Sublime and other GUI editors just hinder my workflow. IMHO if you're a programmer you should know how to use a terminal to the point that you prefer it over most GUIs (of course, you should always use whatever has the featur…

"Anyone who doesn't have the same exact opinion as me isn't a real programmer."

Is that correct?

Re: Why I can’t stop using Vim

#43

Post by [deleted] »

oldmanjay wrote: post #36
danford wrote: post #32

I went back to Sublime after using Vim for a while but then realized I was going to have a terminal open 24/7 anyway so what's the point? Then I learned how to use a terminal multiplexer and now Sublime and other GUI editors just hinder my workflow. IMHO if you're a programmer you should know how to use a terminal to the point that you prefer it over most GUIs (of course, you should always use whatever has the featur…

In my opinion, other people's opinions about how I program are worth just about nothing. I'll never understand the sort of arrogance that leads to posting things like that. do you really believe you're so smart that you figured out the only way anyone should do anything?

[deleted]

Re: Why I can’t stop using Vim

#44

Post by edanm »

danford wrote: post #32

I went back to Sublime after using Vim for a while but then realized I was going to have a terminal open 24/7 anyway so what's the point? Then I learned how to use a terminal multiplexer and now Sublime and other GUI editors just hinder my workflow. IMHO if you're a programmer you should know how to use a terminal to the point that you prefer it over most GUIs (of course, you should always use whatever has the featur…

This might surprise you, but the vast majority of developers manage to get by without learning how to use a terminal. They really do. Saying you wouldn't listen to a developer that doesn't use a terminal is just silly - do you know just how many things there are to learn in the world of programming? Everyone has something they've never learned.

Also - can I just ask, as someone who "uses a terminal" but doesn't really get why people talk about it like it's so amazing - what am I doing wrong? What do you use a terminal for that makes it so important?

Re: Why I can’t stop using Vim

#45

Post by jacobparker »

read wrote: post #34

What I never heard explained in one sentence about vi is: why have multiple modes? Why not zero modes instead?

Its reason for existence is historical, but it persists because it is useful.

"Normal mode" (the most common mode other than insert mode) uses key bindings that wouldn't be possible in insert mode, rather than using the ctrl/alt/etc. keys for binding. For example, hovering over a word and typing ciw (change-in-word) will delete the word and place you in insert mode. There is a nice grammar and logic to the default key bindings (mostly.)

(IMO) When you are experienced with Vim you will spend most of your time in normal mode. This has a few benefits. For one, undo in Vim is "transactional" as you enter and leave insert mode (its a little more complicated but nevermind.) Everytime I have to use other editors (like VS with the VSVim extension) it drives me batty when I have to undo/redo one-character-at-a-time or with some time based batching that I don't understand. (Plug: the GUndo.vim plugin gives you a usable interface to Vim's undo tree. It's not super common for me to need this, but when I do it is a godsend. (If you've ever done undo, made some edits, and wish you hadn't undone after all, this is for you.)

Re: Why I can’t stop using Vim

#46

Post by danford »

WorldWideWayne wrote: post #42
danford wrote: post #32

I went back to Sublime after using Vim for a while but then realized I was going to have a terminal open 24/7 anyway so what's the point? Then I learned how to use a terminal multiplexer and now Sublime and other GUI editors just hinder my workflow. IMHO if you're a programmer you should know how to use a terminal to the point that you prefer it over most GUIs (of course, you should always use whatever has the featur…

"Anyone who doesn't have the same exact opinion as me isn't a real programmer." Is that correct?

If you join my team and tell me you're a programmer but when you sit down with a terminal you have no idea what to do, then you're off my team and I don't respect you as a programmer.

Sorry if this offends you, but how can you consider your self a programmer when you don't know how to use a terminal?

Re: Why I can’t stop using Vim

#47

Post by danford »

edanm wrote: post #44
danford wrote: post #32

I went back to Sublime after using Vim for a while but then realized I was going to have a terminal open 24/7 anyway so what's the point? Then I learned how to use a terminal multiplexer and now Sublime and other GUI editors just hinder my workflow. IMHO if you're a programmer you should know how to use a terminal to the point that you prefer it over most GUIs (of course, you should always use whatever has the featur…

This might surprise you, but the vast majority of developers manage to get by without learning how to use a terminal. They really do. Saying you wouldn't listen to a developer that doesn't use a terminal is just silly - do you know just how many things there are to learn in the world of programming? Everyone has something they've never learned. Also - can I just ask, as someone who "uses a terminal" but doesn't reall…

>but the vast majority of developers manage to get by without learning how to use a terminal.

But not the good ones. Would you take a college class on programming from a professor who doesn't know how to use a terminal? I wouldn't.

Re: Why I can’t stop using Vim

#48

Post by beaumartinez »

cm127 wrote: post #20

First you'll learn how to orientate around text quickly using normal mode, then you'll start playing with tabs, splits and buffers to search between multiple files, and then you'll start using registers to save phrases and regular expressions to search directories. At that point you'll never want to leave Vim again. :wq

:x

(It's the same as :wq, but one character shorter.)

Re: Why I can’t stop using Vim

#50

Post by WorldWideWayne »

danford wrote: post #46
WorldWideWayne wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Anyone who doesn't have the same exact opinion as me isn't a real programmer." Is that correct?

If you join my team and tell me you're a programmer but when you sit down with a terminal you have no idea what to do, then you're off my team and I don't respect you as a programmer. Sorry if this offends you, but how can you consider your self a programmer when you don't know how to use a terminal?

Why would I sit down with a terminal when I don't need a terminal to do the type of programming that I do?

Furthermore, anyone who knows how to type and read knows how to use a terminal - it's really not that special of a skill mate :)

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