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A Look at Vim, a Text Editor for the Ages

posted by chromas on Wednesday August 22 2018, @09:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the :wq dept.

hubie writes:

Over at The New Stack is a brief but entertaining history of the editor vi and Vim.

"The editor was optimized so that you could edit and feel productive when it was painting slower than you could think. Now that computers are so much faster than you can think, nobody understands this anymore," Joy said. "It was a world that is now extinct. People don't know that vi was written for a world that doesn't exist anymore."

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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday August 23 2018, @05:02AM (1 child)

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday August 23 2018, @05:02AM (#725077)

    The problem with that list (thanks), is that if you use vi once a month or less, you're not going to remember it.
    Most other editors can be used in a blink right after you open them for the first time after a few months. vi requires regular use.

    for a world that doesn't exist anymore

    Now that the Apple assholes are killing the Fn keys, and people type so much on touchscreens, there is no question keyboard-centric vi and friends are getting even more niche. Ironic, when Linux is the most used OS (kernel) around.

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  • (Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Friday August 24 2018, @03:23AM

    by bobthecimmerian (6834) on Friday August 24 2018, @03:23AM (#725582)

    I agree with your point. On the other hand, GVim is pretty newbie friendly. It has most of the useful options in nice menus at the top with the related keystrokes listed, so the learning curve is much less ugly - in GVim, all the newbie has to remember is 'i' to switch to insert mode and Esc to switch out of it. Or if you want the menu option Edit - Global Settings - Toggle Insert Mode (equivalent command :set im!) will put the editor permanently in Insert mode, and all other commands are just accessed from the GUI menus.

    With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had learned vim that way. "How do I undo typing? Let me see, Edit - Undo. Oh, it's the 'u' key. Cool. How do I switch to the next buffer? ..."