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Users of Vim and similars, what exactly makes it useful compared to other text editors? How much time do you suppose you save when working with it? (programming.dev)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

It is just from the ground up build to be an extension of your thoughts. One speaks to vim fluently. My advice would be: Ask yourself how some tedious thing could be done quicker, then search the help pages immediately. If not found, expand your search. Learn the default tool. By this you even learn the help. Don't install plugins for no reason, configure the defaults to your likings instead.

I may not use 100% of vim but I guess you would have a hard time finding something I do not use regularly. My vimrc is <200 lines, <4 plugins. Tabs. I don't use tabs anymore.

And yes, I even issue vi("*y by hand.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

One of my favorite emacs features is the VHDL stutter mode (which replaces certain repeatedly-typed characters with operators), as well as an easy to get to rectangle select, and it just being decently fast compared to something like VSCode. I also never have to take my hands off of the keyboard, because it's all right there. It just feels better to me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I actually only noticed this the other day (I took a hiatus from doing a lot of Linux work for >5y), but it resumes editing a long doc at the point where I was when I last exited, saving me from scrolling again.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

:%s =nano=vim=g

:123

d5d

y5y

Also, nano is not always present.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 months ago

Page down and page up works in VIM.

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