6 ms·

I've developed on a MacBook Pro for the last 5 years in vim and I have never touched the escape key or any of the F keys, ever. If you're using vim and reachin

by m3ta 10y ago

I've developed on a MacBook Pro for the last 5 years in vim and I have never touched the escape key or any of the F keys, ever. If you're using vim and reaching for the escape key you are doing it wrong imho. Rebind esc to something else (like capslock) or learn another pattern that has more ergonomic value.

pmarin 10y ago
15 years using Vim with the esc key. I have large fingers though.
easytiger 10y ago
A lot of us live in a transient computing world, where we neither own nor have permissions to edit the bindings. Having one host with a binding and 6 other client's envs without, would a context switch failure invoke
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- manulp 10y ago
  The bindings are done on your macbook, it works seamlessly on the clients you connect too.
- tincholio 10y ago
  ctrl-[ works as escape. Also, what kind of devs don't get to customize their setup??
  - sbarre 10y ago
    You'd be surprised. Some corporate environments keep machines pretty locked down in terms of what you can change in the System Preferences, or install on your own.
    - j2bax 10y ago
      Can you request the change from your IT department?
      - lostlogin 10y ago
        Just fill in the ticket, call to follow it up, explain what you want again, re open the closed ticket, open the ticket again, do a few ritualistic incantations and you'll get there.
    - efvxcgci 10y ago
      Adding a .vimrc file doesn't require administrator privileges on either Linux or macOS, nor does it require changing anything in System Preferences. If for some reason you "can't" add a .vimrc file to a user account then you probably shouldn't be manually logging into that user account.
  - jm547ster 10y ago
    I'd say it's the norm for the 'enterprise' category of development.
ekianjo 10y ago
> If you're using vim and reaching for the escape key you are doing it wrong imho. So generations of Vim users are doing it wrong but you have the right answer?
- metafunctor 10y ago
  The Vi editor was originally written on a terminal which had the Escape key positioned where the Tab key is on modern keyboards. So yes, rebinding Escape is the right answer if you heavily use it. The normal positioning for Escape is very inconvenient for touch typing. http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Avoid_the_escape_key http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Avoid_the_escape_key
  - aikah 10y ago
    > So yes, rebinding Escape is the right answer if you heavily use it. nobody does that because it was unnecessary. Of course, now developers need to ADAPT the Macbook instead of the Macbook ADAPTING developer's workflow. That's not the definition of a developer friendly machine. The touchbar is a gimmick and even then it doesn't justify the removal of an entire row of keys. It was purely an aesthetic decision. But I forgot, developers like to work with "beautiful" computers instead of functional ones /s
    - metafunctor 10y ago
      In my experience, quite a lot of people who take working on the keyboard seriously remap some keys. I'm more of an Emacs guy, but still frequently hit Escape (I use it as the Meta key in Emacs). I've bound Escape to the Caps Lock key for as long as I can remember. Like I said, the normal location of Escape is way too far from the home row, and quite bad for touch typing. In fact, the entire function row is too far for me to conveniently use while touch typing, and I have long fingers. I probably won't miss the function key row at all. I haven't used or seen the actual touch bar, so cannot really make a strong statement whether it's a useless gimmick or actually useful. I have my doubts, but it could turn out to be useful in some applications.
    - 10y ago
Dru89 10y ago
You don't even need to rebind the escape key. I've been using ^[ for years, and it works in basically all standard terminals and vims as the escape key.
douche 10y ago
You've never hit Ctrl-F5 to dump cache and refresh a browser window?

by m3ta 10y ago

pmarin 10y ago

15 years using Vim with the esc key. I have large fingers though.

easytiger 10y ago

A lot of us live in a transient computing world, where we neither own nor have permissions to edit the bindings. Having one host with a binding and 6 other client's envs without, would a context switch failure invoke

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
manulp 10y ago
The bindings are done on your macbook, it works seamlessly on the clients you connect too.
tincholio 10y ago
ctrl-[ works as escape. Also, what kind of devs don't get to customize their setup??
- sbarre 10y ago
  You'd be surprised. Some corporate environments keep machines pretty locked down in terms of what you can change in the System Preferences, or install on your own.
  - j2bax 10y ago
    Can you request the change from your IT department?
    - lostlogin 10y ago
      Just fill in the ticket, call to follow it up, explain what you want again, re open the closed ticket, open the ticket again, do a few ritualistic incantations and you'll get there.
  - efvxcgci 10y ago
    Adding a .vimrc file doesn't require administrator privileges on either Linux or macOS, nor does it require changing anything in System Preferences. If for some reason you "can't" add a .vimrc file to a user account then you probably shouldn't be manually logging into that user account.
- jm547ster 10y ago
  I'd say it's the norm for the 'enterprise' category of development.

ekianjo 10y ago

> If you're using vim and reaching for the escape key you are doing it wrong imho. So generations of Vim users are doing it wrong but you have the right answer?

metafunctor 10y ago
The Vi editor was originally written on a terminal which had the Escape key positioned where the Tab key is on modern keyboards. So yes, rebinding Escape is the right answer if you heavily use it. The normal positioning for Escape is very inconvenient for touch typing. http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Avoid_the_escape_key http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Avoid_the_escape_key
- aikah 10y ago
  > So yes, rebinding Escape is the right answer if you heavily use it. nobody does that because it was unnecessary. Of course, now developers need to ADAPT the Macbook instead of the Macbook ADAPTING developer's workflow. That's not the definition of a developer friendly machine. The touchbar is a gimmick and even then it doesn't justify the removal of an entire row of keys. It was purely an aesthetic decision. But I forgot, developers like to work with "beautiful" computers instead of functional ones /s
  - metafunctor 10y ago
    In my experience, quite a lot of people who take working on the keyboard seriously remap some keys. I'm more of an Emacs guy, but still frequently hit Escape (I use it as the Meta key in Emacs). I've bound Escape to the Caps Lock key for as long as I can remember. Like I said, the normal location of Escape is way too far from the home row, and quite bad for touch typing. In fact, the entire function row is too far for me to conveniently use while touch typing, and I have long fingers. I probably won't miss the function key row at all. I haven't used or seen the actual touch bar, so cannot really make a strong statement whether it's a useless gimmick or actually useful. I have my doubts, but it could turn out to be useful in some applications.
  - 10y ago

Dru89 10y ago

You don't even need to rebind the escape key. I've been using ^[ for years, and it works in basically all standard terminals and vims as the escape key.

douche 10y ago

You've never hit Ctrl-F5 to dump cache and refresh a browser window?