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I intend to spend time with vim over the weekend and take-in some of the excellent input found on this thread. The mental image I am developing now is that vim

I intend to spend time with vim over the weekend and take-in some of the excellent input found on this thread. The mental image I am developing now is that vim can be said to be efficient in a narrow sense. Perhaps that narrow definition is constrained to the file level. It's like a musical instrument to manipulate files. Once you know it well, it feels just like that. I am not saying that this is the only definition, it's just what I am coming-up with now. Once we deviate from whatever the narrow definition of where vim is more efficient the claims start to fall apart. This doesn't happen because of vim but rather because it is the very nature of creating software: Things take time and saving keystrokes at the file-editing level isn't going to bring a project to completion six months earlier and with less bugs. I wear at least two hats: developer and businessman. I am forced to look at things from both angles, because, well, I have to pay for the consequences of my own decisions. For example, if I succumb to my natural inclination to keep adding features it means that I might have ten programmers busy for weeks chasing an ever-moving project completion milestone. So, as a business person, I do my best to control these urges and look at things through a different equation. Eventually you have to call it "done" and move on. Over the years I have never seen any code entry tool that truly makes a serious dent in software project timelines. Software projects are notorious for being late and over-budget. And this has absolutely nothing to do with the tools we use. Zero. A better editor or IDE will not make a dent on overall project timeline. Anyone who can figure out a way to solve that problem can become an "instant" billionaire.

johncoltrane 14y ago
You are making stuff up. Nobody is claiming that using Vim over Eclipse allows a product to be delivered earlier and with less bugs. The Agile crowd makes that kind of claim, some language zealots also do. The "saving keystrokes" argument is important for programmers because our work is very repetitive and we are lazy. It has nothing to do with the productivity of your team or the release date. Nothing. Because programmers don't care about all that. Chosing Vim over another editor is a matter of personal choice. If you don't like Vim don't use it. Noone cares. if you are interested, even remotely, try it in your free time. But by all means don't project the effects of your delusions on random strangers: nobody is insisting that you use Vim instead of X. All the "Vim is awesome" comments or blog posts you have read are not attempts to bring you to our temple. They are just manifestations of our personal and often unreasonable "love" for Vim. No more, no less.

johncoltrane 14y ago

You are making stuff up. Nobody is claiming that using Vim over Eclipse allows a product to be delivered earlier and with less bugs. The Agile crowd makes that kind of claim, some language zealots also do. The "saving keystrokes" argument is important for programmers because our work is very repetitive and we are lazy. It has nothing to do with the productivity of your team or the release date. Nothing. Because programmers don't care about all that. Chosing Vim over another editor is a matter of personal choice. If you don't like Vim don't use it. Noone cares. if you are interested, even remotely, try it in your free time. But by all means don't project the effects of your delusions on random strangers: nobody is insisting that you use Vim instead of X. All the "Vim is awesome" comments or blog posts you have read are not attempts to bring you to our temple. They are just manifestations of our personal and often unreasonable "love" for Vim. No more, no less.