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Users of Vim and similars, what exactly makes it useful compared to other text editors? How much time do you suppose you save when working with it? (programming.dev)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/ask_experienced_devs@programming.dev
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I'd like actual examples instead of "I work faster", something like "I can move straight to the middle of the file with 7mv" or "I can keep 4 different text snippets in memory and paste each with a number+pt, like 2pt", things that you actually use somewhat frequently instead of what you can do, but probably only did once.

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[–] 1 point 2 years ago (7 children)
  1. Ctrl-left/right jump to the beginning/end of words
  2. No exactly sure what you mean here.
  3. Page up/down let you scroll up/down quickly. Ctrl-P :123 lets you jump to a specific line, but I generally use editing history (alt-left) instead.
  4. I can type perfectly well...
  5. Ctrl-{ or } does this I think.

Do you have any more compelling examples?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Ooh fun, these all take 2-3 key presses

    • Delete the contents inside a function delimiter by {
    • Delete the next nine words
    • Delete the contents inside long text quotes

    And these more/less key presses

    • Start a regex search with a single button
    • Perform the same edit 100 times in a jagged files (good luck not f'ing up your multi cursor)

    But it misses the point, of course every editor can do just about anything, but there is a lot more mouse involved and learning it is more difficult because the keybinds aren't combinatorial

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (3 children)
    1. Ctrl-shift-}
    2. How often do you want to delete exactly 9 words? It's much easier if this is interactive.
    3. Not a common task IMO.
    4. Ctrl-F and click a button. This is rare enough that a button click is fine.
    5. Not sure what you mean by "jagger files" but I find multiple cursors are a lot easier to get right than e.g. regex replace because they give you instant feedback. Vim sequences are more like "oh you got it wrong, better start from scratch".
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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (2 children)

    1 is just going to highlight right?

    2, how about 6 words, 10 words, 100 words

    3, 4 I use all the time

    5 if your edit locations don't line up so that you can alt drag a single column, this is what I mean by jagged. I would use a combination of find and repeat action.

    Start from scratch - skill issue :p

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Superficially, typing + seems to be the same as typing , but these are two completely different paradigms of using the editor.

    Vim does not use shortcuts or hotkeys to edit the text, it uses a language to communicate with the editor.

    For me, shortcuts and hotkeys are rote memorization, and I'm bad at rote memorization – compare your point "5. Ctrl-{ or } does this I think". Do I need Ctrl-left, Super-left, Alt-left, Shift-left or Ctrl-Shift-left to jump back a word?

    The vim editing language is mostly consistent and logical. I did not need to memorize it, I could learn and understand it. But that's just me.

    Far too much examples:

    Most commands are abbreviations – a for append, b for back, c for change, d for delete, e for end of word, f for forward, g for goto (and more), hjkl are special, i for insert, m for mark, n for next, o for open line, p for paste, q for reqord macro is a strange spelling, r for replace, s for substitute, t for to, u for undo, v for visual mode, w for word, x for extinguish, y for yank, z is just a prefix for arcane stuff. Capital letters are usually variants of their minuscle counterpart – like A for append at end of line.

    Commands take a repeat count, and a lot of commands take objects/movements, and these reuse the commands, like "delete inside backticks" => di`, "yank inside brackets" => yi{, "change up to third slash" => c3t/

    If you are fluent in vim, you won't type shortcuts while editing, you will talk to your editor.

    As for more compelling examples:

    "I'd like to change the next 2 sentences" translates to )c2)

    "Please format this paragraph." translates to gqap

    "Swap these two characters." translates to xp

    And I did not touch ex mode, vimscript and plugins yet.

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