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> Did you have this same resistance to learned when you learning the languages you are presumably programming in? Speaking for myself, no. My reasons for disl

> Did you have this same resistance to learned when you learning the languages you are presumably programming in? Speaking for myself, no. My reasons for disliking "enlightened" editors are similar to my reasons for disliking alternative keyboard layouts. If I can only be fluent in a highly specialized environment, in a sense, my skills become less portable. I like being able to walk up to someone's computer and just use it or help them with their issue. I do care about editing efficiency and superfluous keystrokes. But when I compared the keystrokes required to complete the example to what I would use in my preferred editor, (Programmer's Notepad) I didn't find the savings to be significant enough to warrant all the pain of learning a completely separate UI. And FWIW, if I was actually doing that example in real life, I'd be in my IDE, clicking "Implement Interface", not wrangling text. As for learning new languages, I enjoy doing it, and look forward to learning new ways of approaching problems that new languages can provide.

pyre 15y ago
> If I can only be fluent in a highly specialized > environment, in a sense, my skills become less > portable. I like being able to walk up to someone's > computer and just use it or help them with their issue This is a non-issue. There are no versions of Windows, Linux or OSX that allow all text boxes to use Vi keybindings. The idea that if you started using Vi or Emacs bindings in an 'enlightened' editor, that you would lose the ability to edit textboxes on other computers is a straw man. You could similarly say that you don't want to use VisualStudio because it would affect your ability to help out Eclipse users or vice versa.
- eru 15y ago
  Also typing in dvorak layout doesn't destroy your ability to type qwerty.
  - recursive 15y ago
    People that I know of that have personal experience do say it impairs it though.
    - eru 15y ago
      I've certainly gone out of training on qwerty (or rather qwertz), but I was never actively impaired. Though in the last few months I went down the even more extreme route of getting a special keyboard not only an alternative layout. The Kinesis Advantage. By the way, learning vi is probably the most standard compatible thing to do. Vi is a standard Unix tool, has been around for decades and will be around for decades more. (Not that I use vi much myself.)
      - recursive 15y ago
        > By the way, learning vi is probably the most standard compatible thing to do. Vi is a standard Unix tool, has been around for decades and will be around for decades more. This feels a little bit like the scene in Superbad, where McLovin proposes to be named Muhammed to blend in, since it's the most common name in the world. It may be the most common OS in the world, but it's none too common 'round these parts. Off the top of my head, I can't even name two computers that have vi installed. The first is my work computer on which I installed gvim for another attempt after reading this very article.
vacri 15y ago
I like being able to walk up to someone's computer and just use it or help them with their issue. vi exists on pretty much every *nix machine out there. The only way this makes sense is if you mean "Windows computer", and even then extremely few of them have a text editor more complex than Wordpad, which has so few commands that yes, anyone can use them if they know ctrl+c/v and a couple of other things.
- recursive 15y ago
  I do mean Windows computer. For my use, most of the computers I'd be walking up to do tend to have something more complex than Wordpad, like Visual studio.

pyre 15y ago

> If I can only be fluent in a highly specialized > environment, in a sense, my skills become less > portable. I like being able to walk up to someone's > computer and just use it or help them with their issue This is a non-issue. There are no versions of Windows, Linux or OSX that allow all text boxes to use Vi keybindings. The idea that if you started using Vi or Emacs bindings in an 'enlightened' editor, that you would lose the ability to edit textboxes on other computers is a straw man. You could similarly say that you don't want to use VisualStudio because it would affect your ability to help out Eclipse users or vice versa.

eru 15y ago
Also typing in dvorak layout doesn't destroy your ability to type qwerty.
- recursive 15y ago
  People that I know of that have personal experience do say it impairs it though.
  - eru 15y ago
    I've certainly gone out of training on qwerty (or rather qwertz), but I was never actively impaired. Though in the last few months I went down the even more extreme route of getting a special keyboard not only an alternative layout. The Kinesis Advantage. By the way, learning vi is probably the most standard compatible thing to do. Vi is a standard Unix tool, has been around for decades and will be around for decades more. (Not that I use vi much myself.)
    - recursive 15y ago
      > By the way, learning vi is probably the most standard compatible thing to do. Vi is a standard Unix tool, has been around for decades and will be around for decades more. This feels a little bit like the scene in Superbad, where McLovin proposes to be named Muhammed to blend in, since it's the most common name in the world. It may be the most common OS in the world, but it's none too common 'round these parts. Off the top of my head, I can't even name two computers that have vi installed. The first is my work computer on which I installed gvim for another attempt after reading this very article.

vacri 15y ago

I like being able to walk up to someone's computer and just use it or help them with their issue. vi exists on pretty much every *nix machine out there. The only way this makes sense is if you mean "Windows computer", and even then extremely few of them have a text editor more complex than Wordpad, which has so few commands that yes, anyone can use them if they know ctrl+c/v and a couple of other things.

recursive 15y ago
I do mean Windows computer. For my use, most of the computers I'd be walking up to do tend to have something more complex than Wordpad, like Visual studio.