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The value is that your fingers stay in the same place for typing, and for editing/commands. But also, once the commands aren't just in your actual memory, but a

The value is that your fingers stay in the same place for typing, and for editing/commands. But also, once the commands aren't just in your actual memory, but are partially in your muscle memory, you don't even really have to think about what key sequence you're using; it just happens. Your fingers know. The advantage of both of these factors combined is that you don't have to think about editing, or the user interface. You don't have to break the flow of thinking about your code. You type code, you edit code, you rearrange code, and you only ever have to think about the code. You don't have to spare brain cycles to think about editing, your fingers just do it. It's like learning to touch type. There are two fingered typists who can type almost as fast as I can touch type. Or even six-fingered typists who might be able to go a bit faster. But even though they know where the keys are, they still need to keep an eye on the keyboard to type. They still need to think about the keyboard. But once you learn to touch-type, you don't need to think about typing any more. You just... type. Being able to keeping your eyes on the screen all the time just allows you to concentrate on your code, rather on the way you're entering it. By turning some conscious actions into muscle memory, it leaves your conscious mind able to spend more time on the things you want to think about.

fknorangesite 5y ago
> You don't have to spare brain cycles to think about editing, your fingers just do it. > Being able to keeping your eyes on the screen all the time just allows you to concentrate on your code, rather on the way you're entering it. I don't see anything here that is special or unique to vim or emacs.
rtsil 5y ago
This is exactly what I'm aiming to do with my guitar playing. To internalize the instrument so much that I can only focus on the music and not have to think about where and how I should use my fingers. I practice hard to be able to achieve this. The thing is, I see the value in my guitar playing. But when I code, much of my time is spent thinking about what I'm coding, and much less for the actual typing and editing, so I don't really see the value for vim. That's why I finished the tutorial, but then never used it in actual coding. Purely my own opinion, of course.
- Linosaurus 5y ago
  I found doing a few vim tutorials valuable as a reminder to look up some basic text manipulation in other editors. Like selecting a text rectangle with the keyboard, or cut and paste a single line. Or that a text search is a perfectly reasonable way to move the cursor seven steps right to the next right paren.

fknorangesite 5y ago

> You don't have to spare brain cycles to think about editing, your fingers just do it. > Being able to keeping your eyes on the screen all the time just allows you to concentrate on your code, rather on the way you're entering it. I don't see anything here that is special or unique to vim or emacs.

rtsil 5y ago

This is exactly what I'm aiming to do with my guitar playing. To internalize the instrument so much that I can only focus on the music and not have to think about where and how I should use my fingers. I practice hard to be able to achieve this. The thing is, I see the value in my guitar playing. But when I code, much of my time is spent thinking about what I'm coding, and much less for the actual typing and editing, so I don't really see the value for vim. That's why I finished the tutorial, but then never used it in actual coding. Purely my own opinion, of course.

Linosaurus 5y ago
I found doing a few vim tutorials valuable as a reminder to look up some basic text manipulation in other editors. Like selecting a text rectangle with the keyboard, or cut and paste a single line. Or that a text search is a perfectly reasonable way to move the cursor seven steps right to the next right paren.