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I use VIM and sometimes use the arrow keys. These come in really handy when you have a lot of small edits to make that can't be readily automated (not really t

I use VIM and sometimes use the arrow keys. These come in really handy when you have a lot of small edits to make that can't be readily automated (not really that frequent). However the huge shift in mentality has to go from the idea that you are working with a "text editor" (which VIM and EMACS are not IMHO) and a text processor which I would argue these are. When you start thinking about processing rather than editing text, the productivity goes way up. There is nothing like these tools in the text editor world for editing large, complex codebases. IDE's can't compare.

bulte-rs 15y ago
Finally a vim user that admits to using the arrow keys. I have them disabled in command mode (just to annoy my co-workers) but regularly use them in insert mode when it's to much of a hassle to hit the escape key. Time to remap that one too.
dextorious 15y ago
I don't see any problem with using the arrow keys. As someone said, when programming typing isn't my bottleneck, thinking is. Full touch-typing speed is a must for court clerks -- not for programmers, and also not even for writers.
- weaksauce 15y ago
  I didn't see the problem with arrow keys either. They really do break flow though. I only recently discovered how much better the home key navigation is over arrow keys. Every time you move you hands away from the home row you incur a small mental task of making sure that you move your hand over there and that the hand is correctly positioned. It sounds trivial but it really adds up to one less thing to think about. Couple this with inoremap jj <Esc> and it eliminates the majority of large movements away from the home row. Say you are in the middle of a word that you want to change compare: Arrow key right until at end of word, i, backspace until at start of word, type new word, Esc three excursions from home row. Ciw, type new word, jj. No excursions from home row and less of a mental load.

bulte-rs 15y ago

Finally a vim user that admits to using the arrow keys. I have them disabled in command mode (just to annoy my co-workers) but regularly use them in insert mode when it's to much of a hassle to hit the escape key. Time to remap that one too.

dextorious 15y ago

I don't see any problem with using the arrow keys. As someone said, when programming typing isn't my bottleneck, thinking is. Full touch-typing speed is a must for court clerks -- not for programmers, and also not even for writers.

weaksauce 15y ago
I didn't see the problem with arrow keys either. They really do break flow though. I only recently discovered how much better the home key navigation is over arrow keys. Every time you move you hands away from the home row you incur a small mental task of making sure that you move your hand over there and that the hand is correctly positioned. It sounds trivial but it really adds up to one less thing to think about. Couple this with inoremap jj <Esc> and it eliminates the majority of large movements away from the home row. Say you are in the middle of a word that you want to change compare: Arrow key right until at end of word, i, backspace until at start of word, type new word, Esc three excursions from home row. Ciw, type new word, jj. No excursions from home row and less of a mental load.