It's not like you _need_ vim to edit code. If those are the only shortcuts you need, then you don't need vim! It's just very useful for power users, especially

It's not like you _need_ vim to edit code. If those are the only shortcuts you need, then you don't need vim! It's just very useful for power users, especially with the huge plugin ecosystem. Instead of each plugin adding its own shortcuts, they often compose together with what you already know to make editing even easier. > syntax-aware editing is overrated when you use a linter/formatter Not quite what I'm talking about actually. Going back to the theme of "code as syntax tree", when editing code you'll often find yourself needing to do things like "ah I should hoist the code in this paren block into its own variable." Vim lets me operate on that syntax level, which feels more reliable to me than using the mouse to carefully select text. I just tell it to delete in parens (which automatically pulls it into a register that I can paste from), move to a new line, paste with "p". When I edit code it's less about individual characters and more about moving blocks of logic around, which is super important for refactoring safely. I end up making fewer mistakes with vim.