‘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.
I’ve met both the good kind of insane genius that uses it as an IDE and the crazy-board nutjob that uses it as an IDE, but both are decidedly not sane.
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
One +ive for nano is that it has general commands listed down below, by default.
So, as long as you understand ^ and M-, 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 ^ and M- are.
So nano could be considered an accessibility program for people who are new to the GeNerally Used CLI, while vim is the thing you will configure for yourself when you know what you want.
Oh and I am definitely configuring it. I hate the hjkl 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.
Hjkl are superior to arrow keys once you get used to them.
I disagree with this point. I am able to use them quite functionally and I still want my arrow keys, because they are arrow keys. Also, you can use them without exiting INSERT mode.
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.
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.
‘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.
Huh? Many people do this. With the right plugins and config it is just as capable as any IDE.
Many people are insane.
wait till you see emacs, and dont even let me mention vscode that thing runs on JS!
I’ve met both the good kind of insane genius that uses it as an IDE and the crazy-board nutjob that uses it as an IDE, but both are decidedly not sane.
True, same people use unix as their IDE and vim as the editor therein.
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.
One +ive for
nanois 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
nanocould be considered an accessibility program for people who are new to the GeNerally Used CLI, whilevimis the thing you will configure for yourself when you know what you want.Oh and I am definitely configuring it. I hate the
hjklfor 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 disagree with this point. I am able to use them quite functionally and I still want my arrow keys, because they are arrow keys. Also, you can use them without exiting
INSERTmode.I do however, agree with your last point.[1]
Oh, and I also don’t like the pseudo ergonomics of mechanical keyboards.
All they do is make it harder to use with a more relaxed hand position.
I agree with the fact that you disagree with me. Nothing else. ↩︎
Just FYI I am not downvoting you.
I hate it so freaking much when I’m thrown into nano. I have to quickly exit and fix whatever made that happen.
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 :)
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.
And if not they have sed or ed or echo and cat.
If using vim makes people insane, then what does using ed makes me?
A wizard.