vim

Last updated Mar 3, 2024

Vim is a text-based editor that is running in the terminal.

Unlike other editors, Vim’s power is its Vim Language (and Motions). Although this can be added as an extension in other editors, vim has much more to offer.

Most people miss “Vim Is More than Just an Editor.” The Vim Language, its motions, and its modes will make you a better programmer and writer. If you invested in the vim language early on, you can use it on each editor, browser, and other apps. This has nothing to do with the editor yet – these are universal and available. For example, there’s VSVim for VSCode, IdeaVim for the JetBrains products, Vintage Mode for Sublime, and so on. But there are also Browser extensions like Vimium or Firenvim, and Gmail even adopted some of Vim’s shortcuts for navigation (j, k for moving, g for jumping).

Everyone who types on a computer eight hours a day should learn the Vim language. Yes it’s hard initially, but that’s the case with everything new and different. But getting better every day and having more fun coding or writing should be motivation enough. Also, imagine, if you work over a decade, how many times you had to learn a new editor (notepad++, atom, eclipse, …) some of which do not exist anymore. If you once learned the vim language, you are getting stronger. There is a reason the editor has existed since the eclipse of programming.

The Vim grammar is exceptional, as spoken language has verbs, subjects, and objects, as does the Vim language. The grammar has different verbs, to begin with. Copying (or yanking) in Vim with y, deleting with d, pasting with p, changing with c, and so on.

You can also see in the comments here people fight over Vim and VSCode, where the natural beauty is the language behind Vim. If you do not want to configure and customize your own, use VSCode and add the Vim extension. But if you’re going to get better at your job, you should try the Vim language.

Once mastered, you edit text at the speed of thought. Sounds cheeky, but it’s true for me. Instead of thinking, “I want to edit that word,” my fingers jump to it and change it with a few keystrokes.

I wrote more on Why Vim Is More than Just an Editor – Vim Language, Motions, and Modes Explained, in case you are interested.

Vim motions and Markdown’s simplicity have significantly enhanced my data engineering and, most importantly, my writing workflow, bringing efficiency and clarity to my data engineering and writing tasks.

I believe many professionals can relate to the journey of finding the right tools to streamline their workflow. A full blog post about that on My Vim-Verse: The Backbone of My Workflow.

• vimtutor which is an interactive tutorial for vim.
• Learn VIM while playing a game - VIM Adventures

The best youtube videos are as linked and mentioned a couple of times above, ThePrimagen starting with Vim As Your Editor or Why even bother with Vim or Neovim in 2022.

I started with Ben Awads’s vim tutorial back then. An excellent Lecture: Editors (vim) (2020). Mastering the Vim Language. I also collect a small playlist on YouTube with vim content. A big inspiration also dev workflow using tmux and vim from Takuya.

• Paul Graham Site Unreachable for writing
• ThePrimeagen
• DHH. (new since a couple of days 2024-03-03)

Origin:
References: Neovim, vim (Thoughts on)
Created 2023-02-21