3 ms·

Vim, emacs Org mode (if you consider emacs "light weight"), Joplin (from what I recall, it's been a long time), sublime text/vs code.

subtra3t 3y ago
If I wished to learn vim for note taking rather than programming, what learning resources would I most benefit from? I am a complete beginner to vim.
- trws 3y ago
  That’s a good question. The built in tutorial is actually really good, you can launch it with “vimtutor” on the command line. It doesn’t give you everything, but its instructions and text to try things out on in the editor itself, which I find a good way to learn. It isn’t particularly programming focused either. For getting used to the motions especially https://vim-adventures.com https://vim-adventures.com can be a fun way, in its game format. For getting started I’d say don’t worry about plugins much, but get https://github.com/tpope/vim-sensible https://github.com/tpope/vim-sensible at least so the defaults meant for vi don’t get in the way. The only other thing you might want is a format syntax if your preferred note syntax isn’t highlighted well by default or something. Polyglot can be good to stave that off but really I’d say learn on a really lean config, and get used to using :help or similar. It’s the best way to learn the parts that work everywhere.
  - subtra3t 3y ago
    Regarding the game vim adventures; is the free version good enough on its own? $25 for half a year is too much for me to shell out for a vim course...
    - trws 3y ago
      I forgot they even had a paid version, sorry about that. The benefit IMO is really just playing the first few bits a few times to help get the visual/muscle memory of moving around with vim motion keys. Not just HJKL but beginning/end, Find and Till, I assume the paid part comes after that but it’s been a while since I’ve used it. Honestly I’d do the vimtutor, maybe try the free version of this, and just use it for a bit. Use the arrow keys, use the mouse (:set mouse=a turns it on just in case) but see how you like being able to use the <count><action><range> syntax to do things. That’s the real win in my opinion, things like reflow this paragraph gqip (reflow is gq, range for a paragraph is “ip” or In Paragraph), delete this sentence including surrounding spaces and period das (literally Delete Around Sentence), and with movements gU} changes the rest of the current paragraph to uppercase. There are many lists of these things, but I learned it by treating it as notepad with some odd bindings for save and quit for a bit in college then whenever something was annoying looking up how to do it or how to build it. I’ve now been using vim as my main editor for notes, prose with latex or markdown, and programming for 20 years, and literally given courses on it for graduate students. That is to say, you don’t need to learn it all ip front to use it. Learn how to open it, get in insert mode, write and quit and jump in; hopefully it will fit you like it did for me.
- machomaster 3y ago
  If you are a beginner, I highly recommend you start with Helix ( https://helix-editor.com/ https://helix-editor.com/ ). It is a modal editor just like vi/vim/neovim, but way better/easier/sensible/helpful than its much older ancestors, especially for new learners. Even if you will later on decide to switch to something like neovim, this switch is going to be a relative piece of cake, after you had experience and understood the basic idea behind modal editing, compared to trying to go vim cold turkey. According to my experience the vast majority of "vim beginners" actually already have a significant amount of experience with vim; it's just that the experience was negative, they didn't get far and were overwhelmed, unfoundly blaiming themselves and their own stupidity, hoping that all they are missing is a good tutorial. No, it's not you. It's the editor itself, build in 70s with the ideas, UI, hotkeys that are inapropriate for the current time. There is a much better way for modern times. Install Helix, run it and type ':tutor' to access the tutorial. After that you will be ready to go.
  - subtra3t 3y ago
    > vast majority of "vim beginners" actually already have a significant amount of experience with vim; This is the case for me too. I tried vimtutor, paid for many high quality courses directed at beginners but it never really clicked for me. Thanks for the comment!
    - machomaster 3y ago
      I have been in the same exact boat. Trying to learn vim who knows how many times in the last 15 years, but without ever able to get over the clumsiness, illogical hotkeys, constant breaking of plugins, waste of time on configuring.

subtra3t 3y ago

If I wished to learn vim for note taking rather than programming, what learning resources would I most benefit from? I am a complete beginner to vim.

trws 3y ago
That’s a good question. The built in tutorial is actually really good, you can launch it with “vimtutor” on the command line. It doesn’t give you everything, but its instructions and text to try things out on in the editor itself, which I find a good way to learn. It isn’t particularly programming focused either. For getting used to the motions especially https://vim-adventures.com https://vim-adventures.com can be a fun way, in its game format. For getting started I’d say don’t worry about plugins much, but get https://github.com/tpope/vim-sensible https://github.com/tpope/vim-sensible at least so the defaults meant for vi don’t get in the way. The only other thing you might want is a format syntax if your preferred note syntax isn’t highlighted well by default or something. Polyglot can be good to stave that off but really I’d say learn on a really lean config, and get used to using :help or similar. It’s the best way to learn the parts that work everywhere.
- subtra3t 3y ago
  Regarding the game vim adventures; is the free version good enough on its own? $25 for half a year is too much for me to shell out for a vim course...
  - trws 3y ago
    I forgot they even had a paid version, sorry about that. The benefit IMO is really just playing the first few bits a few times to help get the visual/muscle memory of moving around with vim motion keys. Not just HJKL but beginning/end, Find and Till, I assume the paid part comes after that but it’s been a while since I’ve used it. Honestly I’d do the vimtutor, maybe try the free version of this, and just use it for a bit. Use the arrow keys, use the mouse (:set mouse=a turns it on just in case) but see how you like being able to use the <count><action><range> syntax to do things. That’s the real win in my opinion, things like reflow this paragraph gqip (reflow is gq, range for a paragraph is “ip” or In Paragraph), delete this sentence including surrounding spaces and period das (literally Delete Around Sentence), and with movements gU} changes the rest of the current paragraph to uppercase. There are many lists of these things, but I learned it by treating it as notepad with some odd bindings for save and quit for a bit in college then whenever something was annoying looking up how to do it or how to build it. I’ve now been using vim as my main editor for notes, prose with latex or markdown, and programming for 20 years, and literally given courses on it for graduate students. That is to say, you don’t need to learn it all ip front to use it. Learn how to open it, get in insert mode, write and quit and jump in; hopefully it will fit you like it did for me.
machomaster 3y ago
If you are a beginner, I highly recommend you start with Helix ( https://helix-editor.com/ https://helix-editor.com/ ). It is a modal editor just like vi/vim/neovim, but way better/easier/sensible/helpful than its much older ancestors, especially for new learners. Even if you will later on decide to switch to something like neovim, this switch is going to be a relative piece of cake, after you had experience and understood the basic idea behind modal editing, compared to trying to go vim cold turkey. According to my experience the vast majority of "vim beginners" actually already have a significant amount of experience with vim; it's just that the experience was negative, they didn't get far and were overwhelmed, unfoundly blaiming themselves and their own stupidity, hoping that all they are missing is a good tutorial. No, it's not you. It's the editor itself, build in 70s with the ideas, UI, hotkeys that are inapropriate for the current time. There is a much better way for modern times. Install Helix, run it and type ':tutor' to access the tutorial. After that you will be ready to go.
- subtra3t 3y ago
  > vast majority of "vim beginners" actually already have a significant amount of experience with vim; This is the case for me too. I tried vimtutor, paid for many high quality courses directed at beginners but it never really clicked for me. Thanks for the comment!
  - machomaster 3y ago
    I have been in the same exact boat. Trying to learn vim who knows how many times in the last 15 years, but without ever able to get over the clumsiness, illogical hotkeys, constant breaking of plugins, waste of time on configuring.