7 ms·

Hahaha… Vim adventures again. People, if you are curious about Vim, just run the command below if you are on any UNIX-y machine: $ vimtutor That's really

Hahaha… Vim adventures again. People, if you are curious about Vim, just run the command below if you are on any UNIX-y machine: $ vimtutor That's really all you need. If you don't have Vim installed, just install it and run vimtutor anyway. Once you have got the basics right, no bullshit payware game or online drillings or online interactive tutorials will help you improve your skills. Only your accumulated experience, curiosity and willingness to learn will.

rhizome31 13y ago
As a long time Vim user, I also found the book Practical Vim very instructive. Not really suitable for beginners though.
- jacobparker 13y ago
  I'd like to second this. There is a lot to Vim and Practical Vim is an excellent read. This book covers a lot of ground and the way it internally references itself is excellent (great for jumping around). Links for the lazy (non-affiliate) http://pragprog.com/book/dnvim/practical-vim http://pragprog.com/book/dnvim/practical-vim http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Vim-Thought-Pragmatic-Programmers/dp/1934356980 http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Vim-Thought-Pragmatic-Progra... The better you get at Vim the easier it is to learn more Vim.
  - keithpeter 13y ago
    For those outside the US who would like the paper version, use your local Amazon if possible. Postage is as much as the book from Pragmatic Programmer's site.
jfabre 13y ago
Whatever you say, I actually learned vim with this game and also had moderate fun for only 10$ or so. It's clearly a win for me. The big payoff with this game is that it forced me to practice. Within two hours of game play I had the 'hjkl' fixed for good. I'll take a look at vimtutor to see if it can complement what I already learned.
- johncoltrane 13y ago
  hjkl are almost worthless compared to other means of navigation and you wasted 2 hours and 10$ to fix them for good. Vimtutor teaches you most of what you learned but for free, within Vim itself and in the context of actual text editing. If you want to learn Vim, use it.
  - klibertp 13y ago
    Whoever downvoted this guy was wrong. hjkl are useless. I gained vim proficiency through a few years of using it. Funny thing is that I never, ever used these keys for navigation: at the beginning I mapped arrows to them and later I just stopped using them altogether, outside of a few rare cases like block selection. Commands for moving around are listed here: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Moving_around http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Moving_around. Note the profound lack of any of h, j, k, l :)
    - gnosis 13y ago
      Wait. You don't use hjkl and you also don't use the arrow keys anymore. So how would you, say, move left one character? Most experienced vim users consider movement using the hjkl keys to be essential to the efficient use of vim. Some even go so far as to recommend unmapping the arrow keys altogether. As someone who's used vim for about 20 years, I have to agree with them. If you don't use the hjkl keys for movement, you're almost certainly making your editing experience less efficient and more painful than it would be if you just buckled down and learned them. There's a very good reason for keeping the most-used movement keys on the home row: you don't have to move your fingers off the home row to use them. Arrow keys and virtually all other motion keys are less efficient for this reason. The more you have to move your hands and fingers, the less efficient your movement will be. Moving your hand back and forth to the arrow keys might not seem so much, but over time it adds up. The truth is that becoming comfortable with the hjkl keys is no more difficult or unpleasant than playing nethack for a little while. You'll find yourself becoming an hjkl master in no time.
      - johncoltrane 13y ago
joelhooks 13y ago
You're most definitely my favorite VIM curmudgeon.
- johncoltrane 13y ago
  Thanks.

rhizome31 13y ago

As a long time Vim user, I also found the book Practical Vim very instructive. Not really suitable for beginners though.

jacobparker 13y ago
I'd like to second this. There is a lot to Vim and Practical Vim is an excellent read. This book covers a lot of ground and the way it internally references itself is excellent (great for jumping around). Links for the lazy (non-affiliate) http://pragprog.com/book/dnvim/practical-vim http://pragprog.com/book/dnvim/practical-vim http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Vim-Thought-Pragmatic-Programmers/dp/1934356980 http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Vim-Thought-Pragmatic-Progra... The better you get at Vim the easier it is to learn more Vim.
- keithpeter 13y ago
  For those outside the US who would like the paper version, use your local Amazon if possible. Postage is as much as the book from Pragmatic Programmer's site.

jfabre 13y ago

Whatever you say, I actually learned vim with this game and also had moderate fun for only 10$ or so. It's clearly a win for me. The big payoff with this game is that it forced me to practice. Within two hours of game play I had the 'hjkl' fixed for good. I'll take a look at vimtutor to see if it can complement what I already learned.

johncoltrane 13y ago
hjkl are almost worthless compared to other means of navigation and you wasted 2 hours and 10$ to fix them for good. Vimtutor teaches you most of what you learned but for free, within Vim itself and in the context of actual text editing. If you want to learn Vim, use it.
- klibertp 13y ago
  Whoever downvoted this guy was wrong. hjkl are useless. I gained vim proficiency through a few years of using it. Funny thing is that I never, ever used these keys for navigation: at the beginning I mapped arrows to them and later I just stopped using them altogether, outside of a few rare cases like block selection. Commands for moving around are listed here: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Moving_around http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Moving_around. Note the profound lack of any of h, j, k, l :)
  - gnosis 13y ago
    Wait. You don't use hjkl and you also don't use the arrow keys anymore. So how would you, say, move left one character? Most experienced vim users consider movement using the hjkl keys to be essential to the efficient use of vim. Some even go so far as to recommend unmapping the arrow keys altogether. As someone who's used vim for about 20 years, I have to agree with them. If you don't use the hjkl keys for movement, you're almost certainly making your editing experience less efficient and more painful than it would be if you just buckled down and learned them. There's a very good reason for keeping the most-used movement keys on the home row: you don't have to move your fingers off the home row to use them. Arrow keys and virtually all other motion keys are less efficient for this reason. The more you have to move your hands and fingers, the less efficient your movement will be. Moving your hand back and forth to the arrow keys might not seem so much, but over time it adds up. The truth is that becoming comfortable with the hjkl keys is no more difficult or unpleasant than playing nethack for a little while. You'll find yourself becoming an hjkl master in no time.
    - johncoltrane 13y ago

joelhooks 13y ago

You're most definitely my favorite VIM curmudgeon.

johncoltrane 13y ago
Thanks.