4 ms·

Computer nerds showing off. The question asker's concern is valid. It's a very difficult process to become properly speedy at using vi. There's a huge cognitive

Computer nerds showing off. The question asker's concern is valid. It's a very difficult process to become properly speedy at using vi. There's a huge cognitive cost involved in memorizing all those keyboard commands.

danielrm26 13y ago
Gratuitous, but I'll add anyway: http://danielmiessler.com/study/vim http://danielmiessler.com/study/vim I go into a good amount of depth of how to get away from memorization and into thinking and having it happen.
mtdewcmu 13y ago
If you're a programmer you have lots of time and motivation to learn your tools. Even IDE users learn the hotkeys, and they're no easier to learn than vim commands.
- gknoy 13y ago
  I think they are easier for most people. We've been conditioned to using C-C, C-X, C-V, etc for editing, with C-arrow for faster movement, etc, from apps like Word for many years, so that is already relatively familiar. So, learning editor shortcuts are often just layered on top of that. In contrast, using emacs (which I have likely outed myself as a user of, via my above notation ;)) or vi require you to be more mindful (at first) of what you are doing while editing text. Both tools are likely to be frustrating if you don't think of things in a way that matches the worldview that each was built with.
  - mtdewcmu 13y ago
    If I'm not mistaken, C-C, C-X, C-V came from windows, or maybe DOS. A lot of Unix editors are older than that, so you can't blame them for not using those. To be a programmer, you have to learn a programming language. Learning an editor is easier than that. A lot of programmers probably don't invest the time to learn an editor, but it not much time in the long run, and it's worth learning your tools.
freyrs3 13y ago
There's a cognitive cost to learning to draw or play an instrument as well, if you want to be good at something it takes a time investment.

danielrm26 13y ago

Gratuitous, but I'll add anyway: http://danielmiessler.com/study/vim http://danielmiessler.com/study/vim I go into a good amount of depth of how to get away from memorization and into thinking and having it happen.

mtdewcmu 13y ago

If you're a programmer you have lots of time and motivation to learn your tools. Even IDE users learn the hotkeys, and they're no easier to learn than vim commands.

gknoy 13y ago
I think they are easier for most people. We've been conditioned to using C-C, C-X, C-V, etc for editing, with C-arrow for faster movement, etc, from apps like Word for many years, so that is already relatively familiar. So, learning editor shortcuts are often just layered on top of that. In contrast, using emacs (which I have likely outed myself as a user of, via my above notation ;)) or vi require you to be more mindful (at first) of what you are doing while editing text. Both tools are likely to be frustrating if you don't think of things in a way that matches the worldview that each was built with.
- mtdewcmu 13y ago
  If I'm not mistaken, C-C, C-X, C-V came from windows, or maybe DOS. A lot of Unix editors are older than that, so you can't blame them for not using those. To be a programmer, you have to learn a programming language. Learning an editor is easier than that. A lot of programmers probably don't invest the time to learn an editor, but it not much time in the long run, and it's worth learning your tools.

freyrs3 13y ago

There's a cognitive cost to learning to draw or play an instrument as well, if you want to be good at something it takes a time investment.