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I’ve used vi(m) since 1989. I still use it lots. A while ago though, I made an interesting realization/admission (at least for me). Vim is great for small fil

I’ve used vi(m) since 1989. I still use it lots. A while ago though, I made an interesting realization/admission (at least for me). Vim is great for small files (because it’s ingress is so quick and fluid and universal) and pretty good at editing/tweaking existing content. But I have found it painful for original authoring of large original content. So if I need to rough out the first go at a python/elixir/c code base of anything that’s gonna be larger than two screens of text, I’ll pull out a “real” editor and build it up. As I switch back into tweaking mode past the original splurge of content creation I often go back to Vi(m). It’s ability to navigate/modify existing code is unparalleled. That’s been my experience at least.

drekipus 5y ago
> But I have found it painful for original authoring of large original content, .... anything larger than two screens of text. I guess the balance is in how much you're writing compared to editing; I'd hazard a guess to say that most programmers are editing code mainly, with only short bouts of creation. Whenever I'm creating, I always need to modify as I go; spelling errors, re-order thoughts, delete entire words, etc. and I find the vim keybindings too mnemonic to not use anywhere else. Even when I'm writing research papers on sharelatex.org, I still try to turn on vim mode, because I find myself trying to type ":w" and "ciw" all over the place.
jonfw 5y ago
That's funny, I'll actually do the opposite I like to rough out code in Vim, and clean it up before I run it in vscode. Vim is so fast and I can get the majority of the structure out quickly, and than I can mouse around in vscode and make sure my arguments to functions are in the right order and that sort of thing