5 ms·

Imagine you don't know that. Now try to exit vim.

ashark 9y ago
Add in the bonus confusion that you may not have even been trying to run vim, and in fact may not know what it is (hey, everyone's a beginner some time), but have landed there due to a default $EDITOR value. [EDIT] also, a typical mid-level computer user's tendency to slap "ESC" when panicked. Ha!
- fishywang 9y ago
  Which OS/Linux distribution set default $EDITOR to vim? Personally I've never seen one, and I don't think vim is a sane default value for $EDITOR.
  - recursive 9y ago
    Don't know about $EDITOR, but if you issue a git commit in Windows, and forget to specify -m, then you end up in vim.
  - dom0 9y ago
    I dunno if it's actually vim or some variation on it, but it is the default on, for example, Arch Linux, although I believe most other distros dropped me into it as well (e.g. git commit / rebase -i). If there is such a thing as user hostile in the world of CLI tools, then dropping the user unannounced into vi with some open buffer most definitely counts as user hostile.
  - 0xFFFE 9y ago
    In Jessie, visudo lands you in nano, unless you explicitly set the $EDITOR.
  - JdeBP 9y ago
    What are your thoughts on $VISUAL?
- bbcbasic 9y ago
  > you may not have even been trying to run vi git rebase -i For example
tcoff91 9y ago
Ok, so anyone with any terminal experience but no vim experience would press <ctrl>-c. Then, the program tells them "Type :quit<Enter> to exit Vim" And if the user is capable of reading, they shouldn't have any problem. If they don't know about ctrl-c, they shouldn't be using a terminal editor.
- dsp1234 9y ago
  E37: No write since last change (add ! to override)
- zero_iq 9y ago
  Try actually following those instructions. They don't work. There is a step missing, and you may get warnings even if you know to hit escape first.
  - Gracana 9y ago
    You don't have to hit escape, ctrl-c puts you in normal mode.
- Bartweiss 9y ago
  If vim opens and that's the first thing you try, then it'll work, yeah. But if you've typed anything, this won't quite work. <ctrl> c will take you out of insert mode, but won't offer any prompt. <ctrl> c again will bring up the quit prompt, but that's not intuitive the way doing it the first time is. And if you type the wrong thing after the first <ctrl> c, you'll break back into insert mode and have to take another run at it. I remember getting stuck in vim because git bash uses it as a default editor. It happened when I forgot to enter a commit message, which meant that I started typing a commit message and thereby lost the useful prompt when I went to quit. edit: per another thread, this gets far worse if you don't realize the ':' is active and not a prompt to "type: quit". That error sets off a maze that will never show you the prompt again to find your mistake.
ZenoArrow 9y ago
In that case I'd just close the terminal window if I was running the terminal from a GUI session. Does that count?

Add in the bonus confusion that you may not have even been trying to run vim, and in fact may not know what it is (hey, everyone's a beginner some time), but have landed there due to a default $EDITOR value. [EDIT] also, a typical mid-level computer user's tendency to slap "ESC" when panicked. Ha!

fishywang 9y ago
Which OS/Linux distribution set default $EDITOR to vim? Personally I've never seen one, and I don't think vim is a sane default value for $EDITOR.
- recursive 9y ago
  Don't know about $EDITOR, but if you issue a git commit in Windows, and forget to specify -m, then you end up in vim.
- dom0 9y ago
  I dunno if it's actually vim or some variation on it, but it is the default on, for example, Arch Linux, although I believe most other distros dropped me into it as well (e.g. git commit / rebase -i). If there is such a thing as user hostile in the world of CLI tools, then dropping the user unannounced into vi with some open buffer most definitely counts as user hostile.
- 0xFFFE 9y ago
  In Jessie, visudo lands you in nano, unless you explicitly set the $EDITOR.
- JdeBP 9y ago
  What are your thoughts on $VISUAL?
bbcbasic 9y ago
> you may not have even been trying to run vi git rebase -i For example

tcoff91 9y ago

Ok, so anyone with any terminal experience but no vim experience would press <ctrl>-c. Then, the program tells them "Type :quit<Enter> to exit Vim" And if the user is capable of reading, they shouldn't have any problem. If they don't know about ctrl-c, they shouldn't be using a terminal editor.

dsp1234 9y ago
E37: No write since last change (add ! to override)
zero_iq 9y ago
Try actually following those instructions. They don't work. There is a step missing, and you may get warnings even if you know to hit escape first.
- Gracana 9y ago
  You don't have to hit escape, ctrl-c puts you in normal mode.
Bartweiss 9y ago
If vim opens and that's the first thing you try, then it'll work, yeah. But if you've typed anything, this won't quite work. <ctrl> c will take you out of insert mode, but won't offer any prompt. <ctrl> c again will bring up the quit prompt, but that's not intuitive the way doing it the first time is. And if you type the wrong thing after the first <ctrl> c, you'll break back into insert mode and have to take another run at it. I remember getting stuck in vim because git bash uses it as a default editor. It happened when I forgot to enter a commit message, which meant that I started typing a commit message and thereby lost the useful prompt when I went to quit. edit: per another thread, this gets far worse if you don't realize the ':' is active and not a prompt to "type: quit". That error sets off a maze that will never show you the prompt again to find your mistake.

ZenoArrow 9y ago

In that case I'd just close the terminal window if I was running the terminal from a GUI session. Does that count?