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As long as you make sure that the mode vim is in the user's locus of attention. Typically, a user is more focused on the actual text they are trying to edit and
by rraval 13y ago
As long as you make sure that the mode vim is in the user's locus of attention. Typically, a user is more focused on the actual text they are trying to edit and thus the vim mode falls out of their locus of attention.
So it's not just about displaying what mode the system is in but also making sure that the user is always aware of the mode. It's this mismatch that make modal interfaces bad.
Edit: Parent has since deleted their comment. It used to say something along the lines of:
> So if I make vim always display the mode its in, does that make it modeless?
- cjh_ 13y agoGood points, displaying the mode isn't enough as you cannot guarantee that the point of display will be sufficient to keep the mode as the user's locus of attention. In vim I get around this by habit, I stay in command mode and only enter insert mode for text entry, and then at the end of a 'unit' of text entry I return to command mode. Thus I always know when I am in insert or command mode by asking 'am I currently entering text', for me hitting ctrl-c after finishing a sentence is part of the act of writing the sentence.
- rraval 13y agoOh totally, I'm a fellow vim user myself and do exactly as you do. But have you ever had Caps Lock on by accident in normal mode? Most confusing 3 seconds of my life.
- cjh_ 13y agohaha yes, very common to the point where I no longer have a capslock key (my keyboard is programmable, so I nuked it).