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.

  • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
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    4 months ago
    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?

    • abruptly8951@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      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

      • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
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        4 months ago
        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”.
        • abruptly8951@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          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

          • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
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            4 months ago

            how about 6 words, 10 words, 100 words

            Yes exactly my point. How often do you need to delete exactly 100 words? Do you count them? Obviously not - you probably guess and delete 50, and then 25 and then 20 etc.

    • Kornblumenratte@feddit.de
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      4 months ago

      Superficially, typing <Ctrl>+<left> seems to be the same as typing <Esc> <b>, 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.