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To me, the draw of Vim is the editing paradigm—modal editing, default key bindings, and complex commands. However, these things can be replicated with Vim emul

To me, the draw of Vim is the editing paradigm—modal editing, default key bindings, and complex commands. However, these things can be replicated with Vim emulation. What is the benefit of using Vim proper these days?

llimllib 4y ago
- I love the keybindings, but the draw for me is mostly in the way it handles splits. Being able to say "split this window horizontally/vertically with this other file" in very few keystrokes is the best thing since sliced bread to me - That said, I do love the keybindings, and I've not found a single vim emulation that doesn't feel wrong within a few minutes of usage. It's very, very difficult to get a realistic vim emulation mode, to the point that I'd rather not try to use it in another editor
harry8 4y ago
In my experience vim emulation is great, almost as good as using native vim for keybindings, navigation etc but still not so comfortable. Like cuddling someone you love wearing blizzard clothing - better than no cuddle for sure but not the cuddle you'd choose as your favourite. Depending on what you're doing, the native vim plugins might well be vastly better. I swear by YouCompleteMe as a wrapper for clang-complete for navigation of a C codebase. The autocompletion is pretty good too. I Haven't seen anything better with any other editor/ide vim key bindings or not. I'm sure if you work hard enough at your s-exepression configs emacs can be as good if those are the keybindings you know and love. But why look elsewhere? <- Not rhetorical, genuine question - have you found a reason?
- vehemenz 4y ago
  > But why look elsewhere? I don't know what I don't know, so that's why I ask. My JetBrains IDE does so much out of the box, I figure people give up all these features for a reason. Beyond vanity and too much free time, of course.
  - harry8 4y ago
    Yeah I found Java really needs full ide support and yes that absolutely qualifies as a blizzard where I'm cuddling up to vim bindings on whatever the team chose for their ide. Eclipse wasn't all bad last time I did this but I'm someone who doesn't enjoy Java as much as some other languages in part for this reason - people who disagree with that aren't wrong. But I've also never tried to use vim as a java ide and it could be great for all i know..?
  - ar_lan 4y ago
    I was an ardent JetBrains user for years, and still enjoy their software. But I transitioned fully to NeoVim and there just isn’t anything I had to give up. It took a little more modification but the initial cost resulted in a much faster editing process than with GoLand. I have every single feature I regularly used with GoLand, but my editor is faster to load, consumes less memory, and I can progress at-least-as fast, if not faster by now.
  - Beltalowda 4y ago
    > My JetBrains IDE does so much out of the box That's exactly what I don't like about it. I'm a simple guy; I like simple editors. I will spend more time turning off things in JetBrains and VSCode that I find distracting and annoying than I will spend on setting up Vim to add some features I want like LSP support.
MatthiasPortzel 4y ago
For me, I'm not interested in Vim's modal editing. But I use Neovim daily (mostly in insert mode like a noob). The reason for this is that Neovim blows every other text editor out of the water in two areas: time to launch, and multi-language syntax highlighting. If I'm in the command line and I want to edit a text file, VS Code takes 4 seconds. Neovim takes 400ms. I installed vim-polyglot and it has syntax highlighting for even weird config files. I don't understand why no one is competitive with Vim by these metrics.
- coliveira 4y ago
  Vim can be used in easy mode, where you have no modal editing. Just start vim with the -y option.
aussiesnack 4y ago
> What is the benefit of using Vim proper these days? Not that much, objectively. Many people enjoy its low resource usage, but most developers use machines perfectly comfortable with VSCode & Jetbrains. There's the startup time, which I don't really see as an issue for other than quick ad hoc file edits. Some people just like to stay in the terminal. It's mostly a matter of individual taste/preference. The one thing I would point to as a real (if minor) benefit is the UX consistency - since everything is a buffer, keybindings are the same for plugin-enhanced UI elements as they are in regular file buffers. Even though I'm an nvim user, tbh I'd much rather have a true GUI, if they had been better and more consistently designed. I have used emacs, IntelliJ, VSCode etc in the past (some for lengthy periods). I settled on nvim, not because it's particularly superior (and I'd prefer to ditch the terminal legacy), but just for the sake of settling on one thing I get to know well, and that I'm pretty sure will be around for longer than I will be. I have other things I'd like to spend my attention budget on.
- alwillis 4y ago
  How someone dumped vs code for Neovim: https://dev.to/casonadams/ditch-vscode-for-neovim-25ca https://dev.to/casonadams/ditch-vscode-for-neovim-25ca
kamaal 4y ago
>>What is the benefit of using Vim proper these days? 1. Editing files on machines, where you can't use vscode remote editing. 2. Leetcode grinding. Many companies allow only vi for onsite interviews. Some companies will prevent you from using features of vi like ctrl-n and macros. So might want to practice with the bare minimal feature set. 3. General text heavy lifting, if you are aware of how to use Macros.
- stjohnswarts 4y ago
  vscode has a ssh plugin that makes remote editing of files and projects quite easy. I use it all the time.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

llimllib 4y ago

- I love the keybindings, but the draw for me is mostly in the way it handles splits. Being able to say "split this window horizontally/vertically with this other file" in very few keystrokes is the best thing since sliced bread to me - That said, I do love the keybindings, and I've not found a single vim emulation that doesn't feel wrong within a few minutes of usage. It's very, very difficult to get a realistic vim emulation mode, to the point that I'd rather not try to use it in another editor

harry8 4y ago

In my experience vim emulation is great, almost as good as using native vim for keybindings, navigation etc but still not so comfortable. Like cuddling someone you love wearing blizzard clothing - better than no cuddle for sure but not the cuddle you'd choose as your favourite. Depending on what you're doing, the native vim plugins might well be vastly better. I swear by YouCompleteMe as a wrapper for clang-complete for navigation of a C codebase. The autocompletion is pretty good too. I Haven't seen anything better with any other editor/ide vim key bindings or not. I'm sure if you work hard enough at your s-exepression configs emacs can be as good if those are the keybindings you know and love. But why look elsewhere? <- Not rhetorical, genuine question - have you found a reason?

vehemenz 4y ago
> But why look elsewhere? I don't know what I don't know, so that's why I ask. My JetBrains IDE does so much out of the box, I figure people give up all these features for a reason. Beyond vanity and too much free time, of course.
- harry8 4y ago
  Yeah I found Java really needs full ide support and yes that absolutely qualifies as a blizzard where I'm cuddling up to vim bindings on whatever the team chose for their ide. Eclipse wasn't all bad last time I did this but I'm someone who doesn't enjoy Java as much as some other languages in part for this reason - people who disagree with that aren't wrong. But I've also never tried to use vim as a java ide and it could be great for all i know..?
- ar_lan 4y ago
  I was an ardent JetBrains user for years, and still enjoy their software. But I transitioned fully to NeoVim and there just isn’t anything I had to give up. It took a little more modification but the initial cost resulted in a much faster editing process than with GoLand. I have every single feature I regularly used with GoLand, but my editor is faster to load, consumes less memory, and I can progress at-least-as fast, if not faster by now.
- Beltalowda 4y ago
  > My JetBrains IDE does so much out of the box That's exactly what I don't like about it. I'm a simple guy; I like simple editors. I will spend more time turning off things in JetBrains and VSCode that I find distracting and annoying than I will spend on setting up Vim to add some features I want like LSP support.

MatthiasPortzel 4y ago

For me, I'm not interested in Vim's modal editing. But I use Neovim daily (mostly in insert mode like a noob). The reason for this is that Neovim blows every other text editor out of the water in two areas: time to launch, and multi-language syntax highlighting. If I'm in the command line and I want to edit a text file, VS Code takes 4 seconds. Neovim takes 400ms. I installed vim-polyglot and it has syntax highlighting for even weird config files. I don't understand why no one is competitive with Vim by these metrics.

coliveira 4y ago
Vim can be used in easy mode, where you have no modal editing. Just start vim with the -y option.

aussiesnack 4y ago

> What is the benefit of using Vim proper these days? Not that much, objectively. Many people enjoy its low resource usage, but most developers use machines perfectly comfortable with VSCode & Jetbrains. There's the startup time, which I don't really see as an issue for other than quick ad hoc file edits. Some people just like to stay in the terminal. It's mostly a matter of individual taste/preference. The one thing I would point to as a real (if minor) benefit is the UX consistency - since everything is a buffer, keybindings are the same for plugin-enhanced UI elements as they are in regular file buffers. Even though I'm an nvim user, tbh I'd much rather have a true GUI, if they had been better and more consistently designed. I have used emacs, IntelliJ, VSCode etc in the past (some for lengthy periods). I settled on nvim, not because it's particularly superior (and I'd prefer to ditch the terminal legacy), but just for the sake of settling on one thing I get to know well, and that I'm pretty sure will be around for longer than I will be. I have other things I'd like to spend my attention budget on.

alwillis 4y ago
How someone dumped vs code for Neovim: https://dev.to/casonadams/ditch-vscode-for-neovim-25ca https://dev.to/casonadams/ditch-vscode-for-neovim-25ca

kamaal 4y ago

>>What is the benefit of using Vim proper these days? 1. Editing files on machines, where you can't use vscode remote editing. 2. Leetcode grinding. Many companies allow only vi for onsite interviews. Some companies will prevent you from using features of vi like ctrl-n and macros. So might want to practice with the bare minimal feature set. 3. General text heavy lifting, if you are aware of how to use Macros.

stjohnswarts 4y ago
vscode has a ssh plugin that makes remote editing of files and projects quite easy. I use it all the time.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]