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How Did Vim Become So Popular?

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Re: How Did Vim Become So Popular?

#101

Post by dalfonso »

linuxdaemon wrote: post #48

Every time I tried a new IDE I always looked for the setting or plugin that makes it work like VI. I eventually decided instead of making my IDE like VI I'd use vim plugins and make it my IDE. I think this was the page that started me down that path: https://realpython.com/vim-and-python-a-match-made-in-heaven...

I haven't found a way to test/debug in Vim that's as good as PyCharm. With PyCharm, after I write a test I hit ctrl+shift+r and it runs. I've been meaning to try pudb, seems like it's the most similar in terms of a visual debugger.

Re: How Did Vim Become So Popular?

#102

Post by b5n »

stragies wrote: post #42
duckfruit wrote: post #36

Speaking personally, I've been a professional developer for almost decade and even in my relatively short career I've seen a lot of technologies come and go. I was reluctantly roped into it by my first boss, an enthusiastic Vim advocate. And since, almost nothing else (save for maybe git) beat learning vim from a return on investment perspective. From the default mac OS installation to some old Fedora box that has no…

Same here, and then i discovered EVIL, the vi layer for emacs. The best of all worlds: Vim text manipulation grammar over the emacs engine.

Probably in the minority - I have an extensive custom .emacs.d, but I've kept most of the default emacs bindings. Not only do I find them ergonomic (use the side of your palm for ctrl!), they're also the same bindings you'll find in most terminals. Additionally, emacs does so much more than editing, and having consistent bindings across tasks is really convenient (I'm super lazy :).

Re: How Did Vim Become So Popular?

#104

Post by greggyb »

CalChris wrote: post #73
norenh wrote: post #65

I started using emacs in the early 90s and got really into it during uni, studying CS a couple of years later. In mid 2000s I ended up in sysadmin work in a mixed Unix-environment (Tru64, AIX, Solaris, Linux) in a group where all other used (some Vi(m)-variant). I tried to get work done with emacs but failed due to various special characters always getting mangled in different ways over different terminals on differe…

It's nice that ESC works but I also want : ex-mode to work as well. It's why I continue to use MacVim rather than Visual Studio Code. VSC's vim emulation is pretty good ... except for ex-mode and I use that a lot. So I go back to MacVim and stay there.

I've heard good things about a (maybe experimental?) feature to use neovim for VSC's ex-mode. Have you tried that?

Re: How Did Vim Become So Popular?

#105

Post by busterarm »

chadcmulligan wrote: post #96
busterarm wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's proof enough that you'll figure it out. Years of interviewing people for my own teams has shown me that understanding your tools (especially to the point of being opinionated about them) is probably the #1 indicator of success.

What a great test, and it makes sense - a craftsman cares very much about their tools, an average tech will use the first thing that they're taught.

It's also what's so hard about hiring junior candidates and why so many companies shy away from it.

Truly junior hires don't really know the tools yet. You can't really afford to wait for the rare junior who does, so unfortunately it's not as useful a test in that situation.

That's why I think OP's "seasoned sysadmin" line is perfectly valid. The junior that knows their tools has already cleared the hardest hurdle for most companies. Everything else is trainable through mentorship, but tools usage requires experience.

Re: How Did Vim Become So Popular?

#106

Post by cjhanks »

licebmi__at__ wrote: post #81
duckfruit wrote: post #36

Speaking personally, I've been a professional developer for almost decade and even in my relatively short career I've seen a lot of technologies come and go. I was reluctantly roped into it by my first boss, an enthusiastic Vim advocate. And since, almost nothing else (save for maybe git) beat learning vim from a return on investment perspective. From the default mac OS installation to some old Fedora box that has no…

Definitely, even now as I use emacs, I'm a 100% evil. It's just so natural (once you get it), that I don't know how other bindings (like ctrl-[whatever]) are prevalent in most other software, it's not like they are more memorable or intuitive. Fun story: I was into Free/Libre software as a teen, when I learnt how to move around in vi(m) and in my first tech gig (as a sysadmin), I was interviewed by some greybeard who…

Yeah, I think you got lucky. He sounds like a great boss. And, he was probably right.

Re: How Did Vim Become So Popular?

#108

Post by waddlesplash »

jcfields wrote: post #44
kevarh wrote: post #31

Vi (and ed) are the only text editors required to be included in the POSIX spec. A base Unix (and most Linux) installs will have some version of vi or vim installed by default. If I'm working on someone else's box this pretty much guarantees I can edit files with my basic vi knowledge without having to install a different editor.

That's why I learned vi initially years ago, because I was told it was the only editor that would always be available anywhere you went. I only ever use it in ssh sessions these days, but I still feel like learning how to use it has paid off many times. I was playing with Haiku recently and was surprised that vi or vim wasn't included in its base install. Granted, Haiku (like BeOS before it) doesn't ever claim to be…

Haiku does actually claim to be POSIX compliant generally, and is certainly UNIX-like. We don't include "vi" in the base install, though.

Re: How Did Vim Become So Popular?

#109

Post by fivre »

b5n wrote: post #102
stragies wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here, and then i discovered EVIL, the vi layer for emacs. The best of all worlds: Vim text manipulation grammar over the emacs engine.

Probably in the minority - I have an extensive custom .emacs.d, but I've kept most of the default emacs bindings. Not only do I find them ergonomic (use the side of your palm for ctrl!), they're also the same bindings you'll find in most terminals. Additionally, emacs does so much more than editing, and having consistent bindings across tasks is really convenient (I'm super lazy :).

just

``` set -o vi ```

problem solved! no more emacs pollution!

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