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Modeless Vim

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Re: Modeless Vim

#241

Post by cassepipe »

laserbeam wrote: post #129

I don't think this covers the main reason I only use vim occasionally: it is the only reasonable editor available over ssh by default on all VMs deployed in your typical org. Over there it usually has default settings, and it's not trivial to change configs or install other editors. Worthy attempt, looks cool, but I'm still stuck with having to learn the basics of moving a cursor around reasonably :(

You can make it better and remap CapsLock to be Escape. Now you are not constrained to use vim but can actually enjoy using it (and now you can try your fav shell's vim mode and become a command line ninja, imagine going up and down your command history with j/k and searching with your command history with just /)

Re: Modeless Vim

#242

Post by wruza »

cassepipe wrote: post #239

My usual comment on any thread touching vim, as an answer to all hypothetical comments talking about how vim never clicked : Remap the Escape key to CapsLock else you will never like vim (provided you are a normal person) It's the most important key and you should punctuate all your inserts with it. So it'd better not be the key that's the furthest away from your fingers. The reason that's the case is an historical a…

“Doesn’t mean it’s good” doesn’t mean it’s a problem either. Also, people prone to remapping already have their Ctrl there.

Re: Modeless Vim

#244

Post by cassepipe »

a-saleh wrote: post #237

T.b.h. I mostly use vim with keyboard movement in insert mode enabled, so ... 80% time I don't really use modes.

It's like using a bike as a scooter. It works but...

Have you tried remapping CapsLock to Escape so now you have a quick access to the most important key of your editor and can actually enjoy it ? Most vim users do it but they never talk about it and the beginners have no clue and suffer needlessly from this historical accident.

Re: Modeless Vim

#245

Post by cassepipe »

onehair wrote: post #198
radiKal07 wrote: post #178

> Instead of remembering cryptic commands I use vim and nothing about its commands are "cryptic" to me. You want to "go to definition"? You press "gd" as in "(g)o to (d)efinition". What's cryptic about this?

gd isn't a native vim command though :P This tool is intended for people who never use vim more than a few times a month or a year

Not sure why you say it's not native... Sure it's made to work along with a ctag file but it's totally native (ie no plugin) if point vim to one, ctag is only crafting the file.

Re: Modeless Vim

#246

Post by soap- »

3v1n0 wrote: post #236

Micro is probably better at this point for such purpose. However I also have some customizations myself to use some kind of modeless commands to quickly select or move around, but I still model things around basic vim syntax and its fantastic move keys which keep me in the home all the time (e.g. Using alt+ghjk from insert, I move around, adding shit I select, without having to switch to move or visual mode)

I was using micro. I still love it, but the syntax highlighting for ruby is very messed up

Re: Modeless Vim

#247

Post by cassepipe »

arnklint wrote: post #154

That’s a whole lot of code to not have to learn 10 keystrokes.

Unless of course the modal editor everyone is talking about has its most important key, i.e. the mode changing key, the furthest away possible from your fingers because of an historical accident and none of its users are talking about it and are smug about how easy it is so easy to learn a bunch of commands instead of mentioning the issue

Re: Modeless Vim

#249

Post by Conscat »

ploum wrote: post #219
vkoskiv wrote: post #170

Personal anecdote: I've used Vim for many years, but I never progressed much beyond the basics, because I almost never put much active effort into learning more advanced motions. About a year ago, I discovered the Helix editor, which has a (IMO) genius feature, where pressing a key to start a motion or other action pops up a little pop-up box that shows all the possible options. It just perfectly clicks with my brain…

There’s also Kakoune, which is very similar to Helix. See https://andreyor.st/posts/2023-09-20-why-kakoune/

One big difference between Helix and Kakoune is that Helix has a visual mode, whereas Kakoune only wants chording to extend text regions.

Re: Modeless Vim

#250

Post by linsomniac »

I could get behind a "nanoVim" config that was vim but with nano bindings, that could drop in Linux distros in place of nano, and would let me flip back to full vim when I get dropped into it to edit a crontab or the like.
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