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The solution to this is that when using Vim properly you're always in normal mode except for short bursts of typing. Don't hang around in insert mode. Need to
by stevelosh 15y ago
The solution to this is that when using Vim properly you're always in normal mode except for short bursts of typing. Don't hang around in insert mode. Need to think for a second about what to type next? Get out of insert mode, think, and then enter insert mode again.
The result of this is that "insert mode" stops being so much like a separate mode and starts feeling more like a command itself! It's the difference between:
move over a word
enter insert mode
type "foo"
exit insert mode
move back a word
and
move over a word
insert the word "foo"
move back a word
- Symmetry 15y agoI totally agree with you for myself, but in order to make a more general point I'm going to have to to point out that people not destined to use vim as their primary editor can get away with doing the exact opposite. That is, they're almost always in insert mode and only briefly go to normal mode to change something. The really important thing with any modal interface is that you have one primary mode which you only leave to accomplish a task and to which you return as soon as the task is done. Even emacs has modes in that you're sometimes, say, doing an incremental search. The important thing is that when you're done you're dropped back to the usual mode by default. For more on the theory of modal interfaces, see here: http://www.osnews.com/story/18904/pt_V_Modes http://www.osnews.com/story/18904/pt_V_Modes
- saraid216 15y agoI'd honestly go so far as to say that people who feel they must stay in Insert Mode most of the time should not be using Vim. They're not using Vim; they're pounding a square peg into a circular hole. They should stop pretending that they're using Vim.