What are the benefits of learning Vim?

 

As a programmer I spend a lot of hours at the keyboard and I've been doing it for the last 12 years, more or less. If there's something I've never gotten used to during all this time, it's these annoying and almost unconscious constant micro-interruptions I experience while coding, due to some of the most common code editing tasks. Things like a simple copy & paste from a different line (or even the same line), or moving 1 or 2 lines up or down from the current position require too much typing or involve the use of the arrow keys ...and it gets worse when I want to move further - I end up using the mouse. Now imagine this same scenario but on a laptop.

I've always considered learning VIM but the amount of time needed to master it has always made me want to step back.

I'd like to hear from people who have learnt it and if it ends up being one of those things you cannot live without.

At work, I use VS2008, C# and R#, which together make editing code a lot faster and easier than ever, but even so I think I could enjoy not having to use the mouse at all.

And not even the arrow keys.

I've been using vi and vim also for some 20 years, and I'm still learning new things.

David Rayner's Best of Vim Tips site is an excellent list, though it's probably more useful once you have some familiarity with vim.

I also want to mention the ViEmu site which has some great info on vi/vim tips and especially the article Why, oh WHY, do those nutheads use vi? (archived version)

Could I live without it? Easily.

Is it useful? Yes.

Reasons for Learning

  • vi is guaranteed to exist on all Unix systems and exists on most Linux ones as well. That kind of broad coverage makes learning it worth it.

  • It's much quicker to use vi for a sudo edit:

    $ sudo vi

  • Also, GMail uses vi-ish commands for selecting & moving emails around!

    • You don't have to be a master.

    Just learn

    The basics:

  • How to switch from command mode to insert mode i
  • How to switch from insert mode to command mode Esc
  • How to navigate up a line in command mode k
  • How to navigate down a line in command mode j
  • How to navigate left a character in command mode h
  • How to navigate right a character l
  • How to save a file :w Enter (write)
  • How to exit without saving (in command mode) :q! Enter
  • How to Undo u
  • How to Redo Ctrl+r
  • You can combine writing and quitting (in command mode): :wq Enter

    • From there the rest will just make you faster.

    Running through vimtutor only took me 30 minutes, which was enough to get familiar with vim. It was worth every second of it.

    链接地址: http://www.djcxy.com/p/142.html

    上一篇: 在SourceTree Windows中编辑提交消息（已推送到远程）

    下一篇: 学习Vim有什么好处？