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> I know Vim well, I've used Vim a lot, still don't understand the strange obsession people have with getting others into it. The reason someone might advocate
by least 5y ago
> I know Vim well, I've used Vim a lot, still don't understand the strange obsession people have with getting others into it.
The reason someone might advocate for its adoption can lead to greater availability (this is why there's a vim mode in pretty much every other text editor). Or they think it's a better way to edit text and want others to experience it. I would love if I could edit text in everything as I do in vim because editing text in the more "intuitive" way is slow and clunky and frustrating.
I think what's more peculiar is the strange obsession people have with dumping on vim or on the people who are advocating for its use. It reads as petty and insecure.
- spekcular 5y agoExcuse me, my obsession with dumping on vim is not strange! It is well justified by the fact that, due to several positive comments on HN, I spent many, many hours trying to learn and use vim only to realize that it was fundamentally slower, and imposed a higher cognitive burden, than the editing tools I was previously using. I only want to save other people the same trouble. I realize my experience is n=1, my editing needs might not by typical or generalizable, etc. But I do think it is important to push back a bit on vim boosterism.
- picardythird 5y ago> I realize my experience is n=1, my editing needs might not by typical or generalizable, etc. > I only want to save other people the same trouble. Pick one!
- spekcular 5y agoI don't think there's anything wrong with saying some people may have needs similar to mine, and some may not. I've tried to spell out in other comments what those needs and experiences were so that people can make an informed decision.
- picardythird 5y ago> don't think there's anything wrong with saying some people may have needs similar to mine, and some may not. To be frank, it's annoying to go to a HN comments page and find the inevitable "popular tool x sucks because I didn't like it" comments. It seems like they're everywhere, on every link about every tool or product on HN. It's a buzzkill. Of course not everybody is going to like Vim. This link isn't trying to convince anybody of anything, it's just there for anybody trying to learn.
- least 5y ago> I spent many, many hours trying to learn and use vim only to realize that it was fundamentally slower Your lack of proficiency in vim does not mean it is fundamentally slower.
- goostavos 5y agoI'll bump you up to n=2! I learned vim to, say, like, a low-moderate-ish proficiency? Basically forced myself to use it everywhere at work and home. After a few weeks of this... I went back to just vanilla IDEs/Editors. For me, it was just a mix of not liking some stuff being handled in vim bindings and some stuff being handled by the IDE's bindings. I'm sure there's a bunch've plugins or customizations that'd smooth it over, but... vim also made me realize, I'm a pretty meat and potatoes text editing kinda guy. I like to shift lines, expand selections in a context aware way, and copy/paste. When I split panes, I do it with the mouse like a cave man. So the bulk of vims power was either lost on me, or felt like it got in the way of my minimal needs. Also, I pretty much never ssh onto an individual machine to edit anything substantial these days, so... the selling point of having some bedrock transferable "everywhere" skill is kinda moot.
- picardythird 5y agoAfter just a week in Vim, being required to move my hands of the home row feels like a significant, possibly even disturbing undertaking.