- cross-posted to:
- programmerhumor@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- programmerhumor@lemmy.ml
Vim is pretty amazing. Almost everywhere now too.
An old Buffalo NAS box made me learn vi. Because that’s all it had.
Yes, this comic speaks to me.
I switched from vi to vim in 1994 and found it immediately obvious how to quit — it was just like vi!
I guess I’ll never understand these memes.
I don’t know why there’s so much hate for Vim. It’s simple- just use it as your default text editor since you first started using computers, and keep using it forever, and problem solved!
Setup for the overused joke - I’ve been using vim since I first started using a computer, I just can’t quit.
Right now I’m at the hospital in the exam yr colon queue! Maybe it helps U too.
:set nocompat
Why VIM decided to make itself run just like VI (by default) is beyond me. Isn’t the long name “VI Improved”?
Vims defaults are quite crap overall. It is why everyone needs 100s of lines of configs and many plugins to turn it into something decent. Well worth the setup but it could go a long way to making things nicer to use out the box.
I’ve recently started administering windows headless. PowerShell over SSH.
Don’t have this problem on windows server!
It doesn’t even have a terminal text editor
I have to install nano or use powershell commands through hoops of fire just to edit a line in a file.
Or download the file via scp, edit and reupload.
Pure Insanity.
Clearly you should install Edit.
Classic DOS editor for text files, batch coding, and QBasic coding. Good times.
I installed vim/nvim on my work windows pc. I don’t often need to edit text files in terminal, but its nice having its functionality.
My actual issue is I need approval to install anything on any server. This might get approved since it’s MS though! Thanks.
I think they plan on making it ship with windows by default at some point, so perhaps it’ll be in future versions of Windows Server and you won’t have to add it.
Is edlin still around?
Personally, I have seen so many memes about exiting vim that by the time I got to use it for the first time, exiting it was a no-brainer.
For any newbies out there, the command is
:wq
😳
:w
= write; or overwrite if the file already exists.Please don’t give blanket destructive advice.
This one’s fine. They’ll then learn the next vim button, u for undo. I believe it’s saved between boots of vim? It may be my kickstarted neovim config tho
I would say not in all installations, no. And honestly, it’s not worth trusting.
And for those who are unfamiliar, and want to set it up: https://blog.openreplay.com/persistent-undo-vim-save-restore-history/
Just to add: possible need to tap esc first, as your random flailing probably put you in insert mode, or something more exotic.
And only add w if you want to save the file. :q! If you don’t
! If you edited the buffer at all. 👍
With random flailing, most likely
also worth noting you open vim the first time, you get a huge ass splash screen telling you how to exit
Only if you don’t immediately open a file.
And if you panicked before and fucked up the opened file while hammering on the keyboard:
:q!
There’s also
ZZ
👉😎👉 Same caveats apply, smash that fukken esc key (for bonus points rebind caps lock as esc) then ZZ Top your way out of that shit.This is the most correct answer.
Rebind Caps to Esc.
ZZ (or ZQ if you don’t want to save the file).
Recently I decided to try ed for real and used it exclusively for a coding project. There is a certain joy in the simplicity, but ultimately I found myself printing lines and searching files more than I liked. And rewriting long lines instead of getting the substitutions wrong again.
Go beyond the lazy memes and see for yourself why it has such a loyal cult!
The loyal cult is the result of Stockholm syndrome.
Of course. We just can’t quit
Stockholm syndrome came from a bs flawed study so shrugs
That’s exactly what a Stockholm syndrome victim would say!
I use VS Code mainly and I always want to go to the end of a line and beginning. On Mac it’s like CTRL+E and CTRL+A respectively. On Windows, I was like, I guess I could do Windows Key and arrows but it felt off. Installing Vim bindings on VS Code just fixed this all for me. I love it.
[edit] for non-VIM users, you can skip words and go-to braces (and delete what’s in them) and highlight within quotes very easily … for function search, the built-in VS Code is really good too. I also have Harpoon installed to hop between files. If it doesn’t appeal to you, then that’s cool too! Whatever keeps you in there. [/edit]
I’ve tried setting up my own vim stuff and I always bail out because I can’t figure something out. I feel like I need to really sit with it and I’d have the perfect set up for me.
Lastly, I’ve installed vim for zsh and it’s the best. I can hop all around my terminal and highlight and remove things. It’s so beautiful.
I use VS Code mainly and I always want to go to the end of a line and beginning.
Soo… The end key and pos1 key?
lol yes I understand I know I sound silly. My home/end aren’t typical on my keyboard. It’s like function and stuff, which breaks my flow for something I do so often.
Or be actually productive and use Emacs.
I mean I do… with evil/vim bindings!
I love it.
No upvote tho because unnecessary 'tude
Apologies for the completely random thought but this is the 2nd time in my life I’ve see “‘tude” written down. first time was in the “I can’t remember” song by Alice In Chains, so you’re in good company haha
Honestly, I don’t like either programmability approach (vimscript/lua OR emacs-lisp), but I’ll probably just stick with neovim, because when I’m on a system without my configuration, I’ve more productive there, and I don’t want to learn enough emacs-lisp “APIs” to reproduce my somewhat small vim configuration.
Because they grew up with it? I cant think of any other reason. I used it in college for a class bcz my old as fuck professor required it. Its obtuse, old, and doesn’t have a lot of functionality of modern code editors.
The only people who want to use it are people who started with it decades ago, or people who were forced to use it, and now think they’re superior somehow to everyone else who doesn’t use it.
I was also forced to use it at uni (a few decades ago), but didn’t start using it until professionally until several years into my dev career. I promise that I don’t think I’m superior because I use it. But I do encourage junior developers to learn it for reasons that appealed to me.
Among other things, appealing things are modal editing (the biggest advantage IMO), it runs on pretty much on any server you will be ssh’ing into, less IDE lock in. And, there’s a bunch of additional things that other editors do that I think Vim does better: regex is first class in the environment, extensible workflows, macros. Then there are definite advantages being able to quickly navigate from the home row.
I agree that some people will demonstrate their enthusiasm by bragging and being pretentious. But I don’t think that’s why they stick with Vim.
I don’t fit into any of those categories.
Its obtuse, old, and doesn’t have a lot of functionality of modern code editors
Obtuse? Yeah. The keyboard focus means natural discoverability is low. But I immediately preferred modal editing once I learned it.
Old? Eh, most people use Neovim nowadays and write plugins in lua. Even in OG Vim, Vim9script broke compatibility for a better dev experience.
Functionality? Out of the box, it is just a text editor. But only VSCode might have a more active plugin ecosystem. ALE has been a thing for ages if it’s LSP support you’re looking for.
It’s not better, it’s not worse, I’m not in any way superior for using it, but I love it for a reason.
If you can’t think of a reason, then you could have just asked. Or read a few threads here or somewhere else. But instead you went forward typing your oh so very informed opinion, which itself is a good invitation for “shut up, lousy know-nothing type of human” kind of response. I do hope you’ll do better next time you see a piece of lore and culture you have no clue about
Seems like I struck a chord. I get this same response anytime vim comes up in a thread. Its almost as bad as the linux gatekeeping. Apparently I’m not allowed to have an opinion that differs from the group.
“It sucks because I can’t see why it is even useful” is not an opinion, it is ignorance, and you have already shown it to be a willful one. No wonder you get shat on repeatedly
I’ve used vim, and I didn’t like it. That is the definition of an opinion.
“I didn’t like it” is an opinion. “Vim is dumb because I can’t think of a reason people would like it, and everyone who uses it is an elitist asshole” is ignorance.
Nope, that’s not a definition of opinion. And this opinion is leagues away from your original post. If you can’t see this - be my guest, go on making up dreams of " I stuck a chord" and whatever else you are imagining
The only people who want to use it are people who started with it decades ago, or people who were forced to use it, and now think they’re superior somehow to everyone else who doesn’t use it.
oof now that is a lazy argument, I hope you were being sarcastic!
How is this a lazy argument? Most people dont use Fortran, Cobol, or Assembly anymore for the same reason. There are better alternatives out there.
Vim is a style of keybindings centered around only needing a keyboard, what do programming languages have to do with my point?
I’m not an old hat programmer and have never been forced to use VIM, but I started learning how to navigate because of the potential efficiencies that comes with it, and because I like to learn new things. I’m not good at it, but I’ve gotten a lot better, and I will continue to do so because it’s enjoyable, neovim is extremely customizable, and the vim key bindings can be used in vscode for when I use that. I also use Linux, so it felt like the right direction to go, but mostly for the memes.
I don’t use it for high level language coding like python, JS, and definitely nothing.net related like c#, but it’s solid for lower level like C.
You don’t have to enjoy it, but there are some extremely skilled programmers out there that can code laps around other extremely skills programmers just because they use vim/neovim and can navigate at a stupid fast rate. Watching some like the Primeagen on YT is humbling.
You have heard of :wq, but have you heard of ZZ
How about :x.
how about alt+printscreen lift printscreen but keep holding alt, now press b, you succesfully exited vim, works for emacs too!
How about
So true
‘vimtutor’ is your friend. Nobody sane uses vim as an IDE, but if you have to ssh to a host to fuck with a config file it’s pretty nice to know because you can guarantee that most distros have at least vi, if not vim.
If using vim makes people insane, then what does using ed makes me?
A wizard.
Nobody sane uses vim as an IDE
Huh? Many people do this. With the right plugins and config it is just as capable as any IDE.
Many people do this.
Many people are insane.
wait till you see emacs, and dont even let me mention vscode that thing runs on JS!
And if not they have sed or ed or echo and cat.
If you’re just doing a quick config edit, nano is significantly easier to use and is also present in most distros.
Vi/Vim is useful as a customizable dev environment, but in the present there are better, more feature-rich development tools - unless you are specifically doing a lot of development in a GUI-free system, for some reason.
vim is more feature rich than nano, nano is easier to use for the first time, after you learn the very basics vim is pretty much just as easy to use and way more feature rich
Im completely lost on Nano. Vim is SO much quicker.
I hate it so freaking much when I’m thrown into nano. I have to quickly exit and fix whatever made that happen.
One +ive for
nano
is that it has general commands listed down below, by default.
So, as long as you understand^
andM-
, which you are expected to (idk why, ask sbd else), if you have been using Linux CLI, you will at least know how to exit.Oh, and I just realised: it also says “[ Welcome to nano. For basic help, type Ctrl+G. ]”, where it explains what
^
andM-
are.So
nano
could be considered an accessibility program for people who are new to the GeNerally Used CLI, whilevim
is the thing you will configure for yourself when you know what you want.
Oh and I am definitely configuring it. I hate thehjkl
for movement. I have arrow keys and I am going to use them. And I am not buying your 60% mechanicals no matter how much you make sure that 100% keyboards are not available with good keys.Agree with your point on nano. I used it as a beginner too, but once you get past the basic typing something in, vim is king.
However, I disagree with the rest of your post. Hjkl are superior to arrow keys once you get used to them. I thought that day would never come, but I got used to it way quicker than initially anticipated.
As a 60% owner and 34 key ergo advocator, also disagree with the last point.
I mean, if youre continually updating files on remote take the time to learn vim. My God it’s a million times more efficient. Even using the keybindings in an ide makes sense.
That and Im not aware that rhel distros at all have nano built in. Nothing on a random rocky 9 box I randomly sshed into just now.
Helix crew chiming in. 🙋♂️
I need to give this a go again. Tried it a while back but wasn’t impressed enough to keep it. Been using pulsar since which has mostly been nice.
What editor is more feature-rich then vim? Out the box it is lacking some sane config but it is one of the more powerful and flexible editors out there - more then a rival for any modern IDE.
emacs :)
I said editor, not an OS that lacks a decent editor :)