git.stevedylan.dev

small update 749c38d6

Steve · 2024-01-06 08:39 1 file(s) · +1 −1

src/content/post/why-i-learned-vim.mdx +1 −1


That was about three years ago, and I had the advantage of learning Vim early on and it becoming a standard part of my workflow. Plus it was on my own pace; I was not programming professionally at the time so it’s not like I had to go through a period of not being able to push out code for a job. Nevertheless, I am so glad I took the time then to push through it. To this day Vim keybindings and Neovim have helped me become more productive and write code faster.

Perhaps a question you might be asking yourself now is "should I learn Vim?" Honestly the answer might depend. I would say there needs to be an important distinction between Vim keybindings and Vim/Neovim itself. The keybindings are used in other applications including VSCode with the Vim extension, and in my opinion they are worth learning. You can at the very least toggle between them and practice them, and can help you if you ever find yourself on a server and need to edit a config file quickly.
Perhaps a question you might be asking yourself now is "should I learn Vim?" Honestly the answer might depend. I would say there needs to be an important distinction between Vim keybindings and Vim/Neovim itself. AKA "Vim Motions", allow you to manipulate and "edit" text. You can write text in pretty much any application, but true editing lets you maneuver and mutate text in ways you never thought were possible. The keybindings are used in other applications including VSCode with the Vim extension, and in my opinion they are worth learning. You can at the very least toggle between them and practice them, and can help you if you ever find yourself on a server and need to edit a config file quickly.

Neovim as a text editor is a different story, because at that point you are setting up your dev environment on a personal and custom level. The UI and features that you would see at startup in VSCode will likely not exist at all, and would require plugins to recreate pieces of functionality. Some might see this as a downside, however it gives you the opportunity to make something that works for you and won't slow you down. Taking the reverse route in VSCode by removing UI elements is much more difficult in my opinion as I have tried it, and it just isn't the same. Nothing beats a Neovim configuration specially built to handle the code you need to write.


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32	32		That was about three years ago, and I had the advantage of learning Vim early on and it becoming a standard part of my workflow. Plus it was on my own pace; I was not programming professionally at the time so it’s not like I had to go through a period of not being able to push out code for a job. Nevertheless, I am so glad I took the time then to push through it. To this day Vim keybindings and Neovim have helped me become more productive and write code faster.
33	33
34		-	Perhaps a question you might be asking yourself now is "should I learn Vim?" Honestly the answer might depend. I would say there needs to be an important distinction between Vim keybindings and Vim/Neovim itself. The keybindings are used in other applications including VSCode with the Vim extension, and in my opinion they are worth learning. You can at the very least toggle between them and practice them, and can help you if you ever find yourself on a server and need to edit a config file quickly.
	34	+	Perhaps a question you might be asking yourself now is "should I learn Vim?" Honestly the answer might depend. I would say there needs to be an important distinction between Vim keybindings and Vim/Neovim itself. AKA "Vim Motions", allow you to manipulate and "edit" text. You can write text in pretty much any application, but true editing lets you maneuver and mutate text in ways you never thought were possible. The keybindings are used in other applications including VSCode with the Vim extension, and in my opinion they are worth learning. You can at the very least toggle between them and practice them, and can help you if you ever find yourself on a server and need to edit a config file quickly.
35	35
36	36		Neovim as a text editor is a different story, because at that point you are setting up your dev environment on a personal and custom level. The UI and features that you would see at startup in VSCode will likely not exist at all, and would require plugins to recreate pieces of functionality. Some might see this as a downside, however it gives you the opportunity to make something that works for you and won't slow you down. Taking the reverse route in VSCode by removing UI elements is much more difficult in my opinion as I have tried it, and it just isn't the same. Nothing beats a Neovim configuration specially built to handle the code you need to write.
37	37