Working with VIM! – Thoughts and Rambles
(This post is backlogged from before I started this blog).
Working with VIM! – Thoughts and Rambles
Ever since starting CS2030s Programming Methodology II, we CS students have had to grapple with this new text editor.
Vim is a Unix text editor that’s included in Linux, BSD, and macOS. It’s known for being fast and efficient, in part because it’s a small application that can run in a terminal (although it also has a graphical interface), but mostly because it can be controlled entirely with the keyboard with no need for menus or a mouse.
Opensource.com
Coming from source academy in CS1101S, I think I am not the only one who was completely baffled by the workings of this Unix text editor. After working with Vim for a rough 6 weeks or so and a (very pitiful 3 labs), I would like to share and recap on some insights, and hopefully build on them to become more proficient at Vim! (Yet another of those 9485394 blogs and videos about vim…)
Some things I thought interesting about the terminology: Vim’s normal mode is fundamentally a “programming language”, and a file is called a buffer. You can do things like chain commands, use shortcuts, edit your .vimrc file. Cool! But admittedly, I still know next to nothing about Vim’s grammar. I am still trying to digest this article by ‘Yan Pritzker: “Learn to speak vim — verbs, nouns, and modifiers!”’, and the verb modifier object acronyms.
To be fair, I think I’m still at the stage where I spend more time thinking than typing → my competency hasn’t reached the stage where I need my typing to match my speed of thought…
Online articles advise that you should use Vim naturally, and quickly, it will become obvious that there is a better way to do all the things you do, and you pile on that new-found efficiency.
All in all, I am still wondering why master vim users say “If you give it a few weeks, you will never want to switch back”. Perhaps I have not been coding enough. I still feel that other IDEs, given how advanced they are now, are still better (perhaps this is the point of view from a beginner coder). I will share my insights once I reach the stage of VIM proficiency, competency and advocacy, I hope. Back to the (e)books!
Some Useful Links in Learning Vim:
Everyone Who Tried to Convince Me to use Vim was Wrong
Have Fun!