word processor users when they try vim (me):
When $EDITOR is vim, but I expected anything else:
opens file, with small text on the top; text begins changing; text duplicates in size, then triples; text returns to original size; text increases in size to fit several screens…
Then my great reflexes kick on and I notice something wrong :)
Do you prefer when EDITOR is set to emacs?
Personally, yes. But the default being nano is very sensible.
The default should be mcedit. Much more usable than nano
Coders use word docs?
I’m not a programmer but I still open up notepad and write in markdown.
It’s just faster.
the collab feature of google docs is nice
When I start a new roguelike:
Activate [j]ump ability, view [l]og, no item underfoot to mark for [k]eeping, [h]ide.
It’s been so long since I worked on a machine where I couldn’t use the cursor keys in vi, I don’t think I’d even be able to anymore.
I only understand this reference because I worked for a company at one point that had a large number of NeXT and Solaris hosts that only had vi installed with letter key navigation, so my muscle memory does not use arrow keys.
I will legitimately go esc, :w, i on Google Docs to try and save the document…
Escape in some email clients cancels a new email. I had to retype many emails before email clients began auto-saving drafts.
my work client cancels the new mail without there being a draft, though that may be because of muscle memory pressing a key combo after esc. its major pain o7
The paiiiin! How many hours I lost because of this?
Spoiler
Probably less than I used to configure my neovim…
I often xs on graphic IDEs too.
On most of them, it works if you don’t have any text selected. The Microsoft ones do really weird things.
Explain pls for us vimless noobs
Direction navigation in vim is hjkl.
I know I’m just a vim-less heathen, but using letters for navigation in a text editor seems kind stupid when arrows exist.
moving my hand this much SUCKS
The reason it’s so popular is because it provides directional navigation on the home row, with the direction that’s by far the most common (down) under your strongest, dominant finger (the index finger).
It’s much better for both efficiency and ergonomics than arrow keys.
No, you’re 100% right. The only reason it’s this way is this: https://pikuma.com/blog/origins-of-vim-text-editor
These literally were the arrow keys on the machine that vim was originally developed on.
Why the hell didn’t they go with JIKL or something instead then, so the pattern at least resembles the direction it navigates?
Wasd was revolutionary at the time
This really just shows how fundamentally terrible product developers engineers are.
so your finges dont have to leave the home row. Its acually peak when you used hjkl for some time
You should boycott vim. That’ll teach 'em.
Why would you move your hand to arrow keys when the letter are already under your fingers?
ESC, use-letter-to-navigate, i, type, ESC, navigate, i, type
Really simple. On my keyboard I re-mapped ESC to TAB so I don’t even have to move my hand to switch between navigate and insert modes.
So you’ve transferred the required hand move from the right hand to the left, and added extra required keystrokes to accomplish the same task. I don’t see how that isn’t worse.
Moving hands is an extremely time-consuming task when you’re typing 60+ words per minute. Couple of keystrokes are much much faster than relocating your hand twice.
No, it’s a key stroke, not hand move. I don’t have to reposition my hand to hit ESC. You do have to reposition your hand to use arrow keys.
Also, you usually move the cursor by more than just one character. It’s one extra keystroke to reposition the cursor, not to move it by one char. You have shortcuts to jump to end of file, specific line, end of line or even create and jump to bookmarks. All this with just standard keys, without repositioning your hands to use the mouse or arrow keys.
Your keyboard must be slightly different than the one I have in front of me right now. Home row to esc and home row to arrows is the same distance on mine.
First, as I said, I remapped ESC to TAB key. Tab is very close.
Second, it’s different to hit ESC ones than to use arrows keys to move around. To go back to home row after using arrow keys I have to feel around the keys trying to find “j” again. Or look at keyboard. I don’t have to do that after hitting ESC once.
I use layers so esc is actually almost directly under my pinky.
I have it instead of CapsLock, tab is too useful to forego.
But yes, arrow keys are too far, and I avoid them everytime I can, including in Shell
Yeah, sorry. I have:
Esc -> Caps lock (useless so far away)
Caps Lock -> Tab (the most useful so closest)
Tab -> Esc -> second most useful
I had it for so long that I forgot which one is which :)
Imma throw another option into the ring which is Caps lock -> Esc / Ctrl. it‘s esc when tapped and ctrl when combined/ held for longer. veeeery useful
Sounds interesting. How do you set this up in Linux? I’m just remapping keys on X level now.
Instead of using the arrow keys most vi & him users navigate the cursor around the doc by using letter keys. I do it so subcociously now I am not sure which direction is the
jwhen I use my phone.But keyboards have arrow keys now?
I’m one of the noobs. You use letter keys to navigate around text?
Vim has several modes. INSERT mode let’s you write text, NORMAL mode let’s you navigate (with h,j,k,l and others) and perform operations on the text with your keyboard, like “dw” to Delete Word or “A” to enter insert mode at the end of the line.
You can use arrow keys to navigate in insert mode. However I just press escape, which changes to normal, navigate to where I want to, then change to insert mode.
I may seem like this makes simple navigation complex, and it kinda does. But complex navigation becomes easier.
Vi (and vim and neovim)'s primary concern is viewing and editing code, writing is secondary (although it’s still an excellent experience)
Yes, (neo)vi(m) has different modes, in
normalmode the characters are shortcuts, hjkl is used for navigation. However other methods are prefered, w, e, b - jumping words, f,t - jumping to a specific character etc. Its way faster. Also it can be combinedd2w(d)eletes the next (2) (w)ord. Or more advanceddi"(d)eletes the text (i)nside the “…”Insertmode is what you except: it writes what you type. Can be accessed by i - (i)nsert before a - (a)append after. Going back to normal mode is ESC (or many configure tab)
This is a problem for me on systems that only have nano installed. Gets me every time
