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posted by martyb on Tuesday October 24 2017, @07:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-about-emacs? dept.

It's an old article, but if you use vi/m it's always good to read a refresher. I've been using the editor for almost 30 years and always learn something new:

If you spend a lot of time typing plain text, writing programs or HTML, you can save much of that time by using a good editor and using it effectively. This paper will present guidelines and hints for doing your work more quickly and with fewer mistakes.

The open source text editor Vim (Vi IMproved) will be used here to present the ideas about effective editing, but they apply to other editors just as well. Choosing the right editor is actually the first step towards effective editing. The discussion about which editor is the best for you would take too much room and is avoided. If you don't know which editor to use or are dissatisfied with what you are currently using, give Vim a try; you won't be disappointed.

[...] The point is that you need to get to know these commands. You might object that you can't possibly learn all these commands - there are hundreds of different movement commands, some simple, some very clever - and it would take weeks of training to learn them all. Well, you don't need to; instead realize what your specific way of editing is, and learn only those commands that make your editing more effective.

There are three basic steps:

        1. While you are editing, keep an eye out for actions you repeat and/or spend quite a bit of time on.
        2. Find out if there is an editor command that will do this action quicker. Read the documentation, ask a friend, or look at how others do this.
        3. Train using the command. Do this until your fingers type it without thinking.


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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 24 2017, @11:48AM (9 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday October 24 2017, @11:48AM (#586804) Homepage Journal

    I'm sorry but your geek card is hereby revoked for suggesting using a Windows text editor. You may reapply for it once you have cleared everything but games from your wine profile(s). You will of course have to retake the written test.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by chromas on Tuesday October 24 2017, @12:24PM (1 child)

    by chromas (34) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 24 2017, @12:24PM (#586814) Journal

    I run Cygwin under wine 😈

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @08:19PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @08:19PM (#587073)

      I run Cygwin under Emacs.

  • (Score: 2) by Post-Nihilist on Tuesday October 24 2017, @01:04PM (6 children)

    by Post-Nihilist (5672) on Tuesday October 24 2017, @01:04PM (#586827)

    I am guilty of wrapping TortoiseSVN in a series of shell script to integrate it into my file manager.
    The Linux equivalent are sub-par when it comme to merging a range of revision, yeah , I should use git but I would have the same problems as I am a compulsive mouse clicker and I dont dictate source control at work...

    But even the mouse jerk like me, recognize the futility of using a windows editor in linux. My default is Geany and if, and only if, i want to apply the result of a small script and or a huge multiline regex, on a lots of files I use jEdit : an ugly but really powerfully editor , kind of Emacs in Java. Since my Java is better than my lisp (the only dialect I know is scheme), to me it is more powerful with the added bonus that I dont feel like I am joining a cult, a disphoric feeling I had when trying Emacs.

    When I code, I use Intellij IDEA, that way I dont have to pollute my memory with library specific knowledge, I can concentrate on the core logics.

    With the recent versions, I could even go as far as paging out the languages idiom and that IDE would pull me in the right way (at least in Python, Java, Ruby, Js, Php and Go )

    But on a headless server (the way the gods intended them to be), nothing beats Vim...

    --
    Be like us, be different, be a nihilist!!!
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @02:14PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @02:14PM (#586861)

      APIs can be irritating. I use Netbeans and Visual Studio (community) with their respective [sourceforge.net] Vim extensions [github.com].

      What's a good setup for C/C++? Netbeans has always been mediocre, and I'm looking for something for use at home, so FLOSS is a must. Right now I just use Vim with lots of tabs open in the browser pointing to API docs. Is there a good ctags guide for Vim?

      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 24 2017, @03:23PM (3 children)

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday October 24 2017, @03:23PM (#586895) Homepage Journal

        I suppose you could use Eclipse. I've been forced to use IDEs over the years but I always go back to (g)vim and browser tabs or terminal screens full of docs as soon as nobody's looking.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday October 24 2017, @07:17PM (2 children)

          by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday October 24 2017, @07:17PM (#587023) Journal

          "I suppose you could use Eclipse. I've been forced to use IDEs over the years"

          *Shudder* IDEs make my skin crawl. You mean I have to touch my *mouse* to code?

          --
          Washington DC delenda est.
          • (Score: 2) by Post-Nihilist on Wednesday October 25 2017, @02:08AM

            by Post-Nihilist (5672) on Wednesday October 25 2017, @02:08AM (#587221)

            CLion from https://www.jetbrains.com/clion/ [jetbrains.com] if your employer have the $ for it or if you feel your increase of productivity pays for it...

            I use to hate Jetbrains IDEs but since they made them less opinionated on the layout you should be using (it changed gradually over a few years) , i would not go back to Netbeans or (puke a little in my mouth) Eclipse.

            They use a subscription model but you have a perpetual fallback licence for the last version installed when you were a subscriber...

            --
            Be like us, be different, be a nihilist!!!
          • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 25 2017, @02:29AM

            by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday October 25 2017, @02:29AM (#587231) Homepage Journal

            Well, there are like two or three things it's just faster to do with a mouse. Which is why I use gvim. All the vim-y goodness with a tiny bit of added utility.

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 1) by mmh on Tuesday October 24 2017, @02:52PM

      by mmh (721) on Tuesday October 24 2017, @02:52PM (#586883)

      But even the mouse jerk like me

      If you haven't already, highly recommend you checkout EasyStroke (https://github.com/thjaeger/easystroke), it comes packaged with most distros.

      Other mouse jerks will think you're a magical unicorn!