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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 4 months ago by ICastFist@programming.dev 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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[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I don’t use VIM but I once tried and although it may be faster in the long run, You’re absolutely not productive when learning it and it made me give up.

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's fair, but in a week you're effective, and after a month everything else seems wrong - like typing with oven mitts on.

But I enjoyed learning vim. It was like learning the controls to a game that I get to play every day. Now ten years later, I'm still finding little tricks and optimisations. I'm still having fun learning vim.

If that doesn't sound fun to you, then I get why it isn't worth it, though.

[–] lud@lemm.ee 3 points 4 months ago

I wish it worked better on non ANSI USA layouts. So many commands are just impossible to do on my keyboard. So I gave up quite quickly after I found that out.