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I'm of two minds about this. a) Yes, there are quite a few articles about vim that show up on HN's front page. b) I am a long time -- 20 years now? Really? Ga
by revscat 15y ago
I'm of two minds about this.
a) Yes, there are quite a few articles about vim that show up on HN's front page.
b) I am a long time -- 20 years now? Really? Gah! -- vim user, and some of the articles have shown me things that even I didn't know.
Insofar as emacs is concerned, I'm not sure why you are mentioning it. It is a good, respectable editor.
- thekungfuman 15y agoA complicated bit of text editing software if after 20 years of daily use you're still learning significant new tricks. Statements like yours are why vim seems completely unapproachable to me.
- udp 15y agoUnapproachable? You don't need to know every single command and the entirety of Vimscript to use the editor. Do you know every function in every language/API you use?
- viscanti 15y agoThe fact that someone could use it for 20 years without knowing everything makes it seem more approachable to me. It shows that you don't need to know everything, or even most things to be productive with it.
- greyfade 15y agoIt may seem that way, but you need only learn one command per day. Start with `i` for insert mode and `<ESC>` to return to normal mode. and `:x` to save and quit. From there, when you want to know what a command does, go to normal mode and type `:help command` Do this once per day. Maybe twice if you feel adventurous. Use `:helpgrep` if you need to find something specific and don't know where to begin. You will feel like you've been missing out.