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I think you can successfully migrate to vim modes by using less than optimal vim habits initially. I don't think anyone is going to go through the entire actio

I think you can successfully migrate to vim modes by using less than optimal vim habits initially. I don't think anyone is going to go through the entire action list and instinctively remember all of them, and be able to use them at a moments notice. As an example, my transition was something like this: I'd use a vim plugin, and use say 5- 7 basic actions + movements like `cw`, `c$` `i`, and keep it limited to that for a while. If you're frustrated, simple insert mode (`i`) is all you need to get back to your comfort zone. Pretty soon, you get those ingrained, and then start looking for other tricks to learn. A few years later, it's second nature and you're probably slightly more productive. Bottom line is that it shouldn't take you 2 months to break even, hopefully.

eckza 8y ago
This is how I've learned! I'm about 8 years in with vim, but I'm no vim-journeyman; I just learned enough to get started. Movement, find-and-replace, splits. The basics. And every time I wonder if there's a better way to do whatever I'm doing, I look it up, and - lo and behold - I learn some cool new feature that I can organically introduce into my workflow. Learning vim in this way has been immensely satisfying. I look at time spent in vim as an investment in my career as a software developer. For as long as I'm in this industry, I'm going to need to edit text. vim can do just about anything and everything; will run on any architecture, past, present, or (it's safe to assume) future; and has allowed me to reduce the amount of time that I spend doing repetitive editing tasks.
strkek 8y ago
> If you're frustrated, simple insert mode (`i`) is all you need to get back to your comfort zone. Also, something I wish I knew back when I was learning is `:set nonumber` to turn off the gutter and be able to copy things with the mouse (`:set number` turns it back on). If I had known this, my experience wouldn't have been as bad as it was until I learned to use the registers.
Symmetry 8y ago
If I had as much extra time as I ever wanted one of the projects I'd work on would be a vim-style modal editor where ctrl-X in insert mode usually corresponded to X in normal mode and where CUA conventions are followed when practical. And where you do move-command rather than command-move and you have both an emacs yank-ring and a vim jump-ring.
godelski 8y ago
Path I took is to learn the basic movements. Then just put a sticky note with new commands each week. Whatever I didn't use I didn't commit to memory. But knowing commands exists helps.
- nsomaru 8y ago
  looking to do this at an intermediate level. any commands you can recommend?
  - lozenge 8y ago
    Star and hash - find previous and next match for word under cursor n and N - find previous and next match for current search.
  - maxk42 8y ago
    Make sure you know your buffers and marks. Also make sure you understand the difference between u/CTRL-R and g+/g-. Macros (q) are also useful. Also, v, V, CTRL-V for selections. And gv to re-select previous selected area and gn / gN to operate on the next/previous match.
  - godelski 8y ago
    By far I think the most over looked commands are the <C-x> commands while in insert mode. They do the auto complete. They all follow this pattern <C-x>letter. Try out: l (line), n/p (next/previous instance of word), f (file) Note that you can hammer these. The next important thing I suggest is using buffers, splits, and marks.

eckza 8y ago

This is how I've learned! I'm about 8 years in with vim, but I'm no vim-journeyman; I just learned enough to get started. Movement, find-and-replace, splits. The basics. And every time I wonder if there's a better way to do whatever I'm doing, I look it up, and - lo and behold - I learn some cool new feature that I can organically introduce into my workflow. Learning vim in this way has been immensely satisfying. I look at time spent in vim as an investment in my career as a software developer. For as long as I'm in this industry, I'm going to need to edit text. vim can do just about anything and everything; will run on any architecture, past, present, or (it's safe to assume) future; and has allowed me to reduce the amount of time that I spend doing repetitive editing tasks.

strkek 8y ago

> If you're frustrated, simple insert mode (`i`) is all you need to get back to your comfort zone. Also, something I wish I knew back when I was learning is `:set nonumber` to turn off the gutter and be able to copy things with the mouse (`:set number` turns it back on). If I had known this, my experience wouldn't have been as bad as it was until I learned to use the registers.

Symmetry 8y ago

If I had as much extra time as I ever wanted one of the projects I'd work on would be a vim-style modal editor where ctrl-X in insert mode usually corresponded to X in normal mode and where CUA conventions are followed when practical. And where you do move-command rather than command-move and you have both an emacs yank-ring and a vim jump-ring.

godelski 8y ago

Path I took is to learn the basic movements. Then just put a sticky note with new commands each week. Whatever I didn't use I didn't commit to memory. But knowing commands exists helps.

nsomaru 8y ago
looking to do this at an intermediate level. any commands you can recommend?
- lozenge 8y ago
  Star and hash - find previous and next match for word under cursor n and N - find previous and next match for current search.
- maxk42 8y ago
  Make sure you know your buffers and marks. Also make sure you understand the difference between u/CTRL-R and g+/g-. Macros (q) are also useful. Also, v, V, CTRL-V for selections. And gv to re-select previous selected area and gn / gN to operate on the next/previous match.
- godelski 8y ago
  By far I think the most over looked commands are the <C-x> commands while in insert mode. They do the auto complete. They all follow this pattern <C-x>letter. Try out: l (line), n/p (next/previous instance of word), f (file) Note that you can hammer these. The next important thing I suggest is using buffers, splits, and marks.