Vim Creep • Hacker News Board

Re: Vim Creep

#21

Post by jdludlow » Thu, Jul 12, 2012, 7:19 PM UTC

My first week in college a distant relative of mine at the same school pulled me into the Sun lab. The sum-total of his instructions were:

* This is how you log in.

* This is ls.

* This is cd.

* This is man.

* This is apropos.

* Learn vi.

* Have fun.

What came from that 5 minute intro to Unix has been applied orders of magnitude more often than anything from 5 years of an EE degree.

Re: Vim Creep

#22

Post by pfraze » Thu, Jul 12, 2012, 7:19 PM UTC

heretohelp wrote: post #17

crazygringo wrote: post #13

This feels like an article about a religion or cult, not a software program. I just don't get it. Ever since newer editors got block editing or multiple insertion cursors, and RegEx find & replace across multiple files, and searching filenames to open... I feel like I've already got everything I need! What am I missing out on? I don't feel like my text editor holds back my productivity. Using something like Sublime,…

I don't understand vimmers, but I use Emacs and I can say that having your work environment be 100% programmable is pretty damned nice.

I used emacs for about 6 months, and just recently switched to vim to see what I think. It's been pretty subtle so far; close enough that I don't know how much the choice matters.

Re: Vim Creep

#23

Post by andere » Thu, Jul 12, 2012, 7:19 PM UTC

What a feel-good piece.

Re: Vim Creep

#24

Post by rcourtie » Thu, Jul 12, 2012, 7:19 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #13

This feels like an article about a religion or cult, not a software program. I just don't get it. Ever since newer editors got block editing or multiple insertion cursors, and RegEx find & replace across multiple files, and searching filenames to open... I feel like I've already got everything I need! What am I missing out on? I don't feel like my text editor holds back my productivity. Using something like Sublime,…

For me it's the insert/command modes. The command mode allows me to do all sorts of things without contorting my fingers with combination commands, which is something that annoyed me about emacs. Also makes the macro recording easy for me to understand.

Re: Vim Creep

#25

Post by sliverstorm » Thu, Jul 12, 2012, 7:19 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #13

This feels like an article about a religion or cult, not a software program. I just don't get it. Ever since newer editors got block editing or multiple insertion cursors, and RegEx find & replace across multiple files, and searching filenames to open... I feel like I've already got everything I need! What am I missing out on? I don't feel like my text editor holds back my productivity. Using something like Sublime,…

Cursor navigation via the keyboard, and not just the arrow keys.

Re: Vim Creep

#26

Post by crazygringo » Thu, Jul 12, 2012, 7:20 PM UTC

heretohelp wrote: post #17

crazygringo wrote: post #13

This feels like an article about a religion or cult, not a software program. I just don't get it. Ever since newer editors got block editing or multiple insertion cursors, and RegEx find & replace across multiple files, and searching filenames to open... I feel like I've already got everything I need! What am I missing out on? I don't feel like my text editor holds back my productivity. Using something like Sublime,…

I don't understand vimmers, but I use Emacs and I can say that having your work environment be 100% programmable is pretty damned nice.

So what kind of stuff do you program inside of it? What kinds of problems do you solve?

I mean, I've never really felt the need to program an add-on to text editor. I download syntax highlighting packages, and there are common macros like "remove trailing whitespace" already installed. Keyboard shortcuts can be changed in lots of editors and OS's. In the past, I've definitely been upset that a particular editor didn't support a particular feature, but by now they've progressed enough that I don't really feel that anymore.

Re: Vim Creep

#27

Post by Rudism » Thu, Jul 12, 2012, 7:22 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #13

This feels like an article about a religion or cult, not a software program. I just don't get it. Ever since newer editors got block editing or multiple insertion cursors, and RegEx find & replace across multiple files, and searching filenames to open... I feel like I've already got everything I need! What am I missing out on? I don't feel like my text editor holds back my productivity. Using something like Sublime,…

I'll admit that when I wrote this, I did intend it as both a tribute to my favorite text editor as well as a tongue-in-cheek response to the cult-like following that it has. For me, membership to the pseudo-cult is just another reason why I love Vim.

Re: Vim Creep

#28

Post by jdludlow » Thu, Jul 12, 2012, 7:22 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #13

This feels like an article about a religion or cult, not a software program. I just don't get it. Ever since newer editors got block editing or multiple insertion cursors, and RegEx find & replace across multiple files, and searching filenames to open... I feel like I've already got everything I need! What am I missing out on? I don't feel like my text editor holds back my productivity. Using something like Sublime,…

It's mainly about muscle memory. If you're using Sublime, emacs, TextMate, or any other "real" text editor then you're fine.

I don't have to think about how to perform most tasks in vim. My fingers just execute what my brain wants to see happen. That doesn't mean that vim is the greatest thing ever, just that I'm used to it and it's fast enough to get the job done.

One concrete benefit to vim is that it works very well over crappy network connections, and it's installed on most every Linux system you're going to touch.

Re: Vim Creep

#29

Post by JangoSteve » Thu, Jul 12, 2012, 7:24 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #13

This feels like an article about a religion or cult, not a software program. I just don't get it. Ever since newer editors got block editing or multiple insertion cursors, and RegEx find & replace across multiple files, and searching filenames to open... I feel like I've already got everything I need! What am I missing out on? I don't feel like my text editor holds back my productivity. Using something like Sublime,…

I think you don't feel it, because vim doesn't save you five minutes, twenty times a week; it saves you 0.75 seconds, eight thousand times a week. Same time savings, but much harder notice the pain before you've solved it.

I never felt it either, back in my TextMate days. But one Thanksgiving holiday week, I told myself, you know there's got to be something to this if all these people I respect swear by it. I decided to use vim-only for two weeks, no matter what, and I'd switch back if I wasn't hooked. I was.

Re: Vim Creep

#30

Post by SwellJoe » Thu, Jul 12, 2012, 7:24 PM UTC

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...

Editing text is a solved problem: vim or emacs. Pick one and get back to work.