The True Cost of Switching to Vim

Description

This is a screenshot of a tweet from the popular satirical tech account 'I Am Devloper' (@iamdevloper). The tweet, dated 01.09.21, reads: 'Did you know, that if you switched to Vim, you could lose up to 87% of the little joy you have left in this life'. The image captures the text of the tweet along with the account's profile picture and engagement metrics (78 comments, 369 retweets, 3,197 likes). The humor is a sarcastic take on the notoriously steep learning curve of the Vim text editor. For experienced developers, this joke is highly relatable, as it acknowledges the initial pain and frustration of learning Vim's modal editing and complex commands, a rite of passage that is a common trope within developer communities. It playfully jabs at the editor's reputation for being user-unfriendly, despite its power and efficiency in the hands of an expert

Common Tags

EditorWars DeveloperHumor TextEditorChoice DeveloperPainPoints CLI CommandLineInterface RelatableDevExperience

Comments

Anonymous ★ Top Pick Vim has two modes: 1. Beeping at you for typing. 2. Accidentally deleting half your file. The joy comes from discovering which mode you're in

Anonymous ★ Top Pick

Vim has two modes: 1. Beeping at you for typing. 2. Accidentally deleting half your file. The joy comes from discovering which mode you're in
Anonymous

Vim doesn’t drain your joy - it stashes it in an unnamed register you’ll never remember how to yank back
Anonymous

After 15 years, I finally escaped Vim... turns out the exit command was :wq all along, but by then I'd already rewritten the kernel in Vimscript and achieved enlightenment through regex-based refactoring
Anonymous

The real tragedy isn't losing 87% of your joy switching to Vim - it's that the remaining 13% is spent trying to explain to your pair programming partner why you just typed ':wq' into their Slack message, muscle memory having completely overridden your conscious thought. At least you didn't accidentally commit 'i' followed by your actual code changes to git, which is the Vim equivalent of leaving your turn signal on for 47 miles
Anonymous

87%? Optimistic - Vim's true toll hits 100% on first :q! mishap, but muscle memory rebates it in production configs... eventually
Anonymous

Vim is pure capex: negative NPV until hjkl amortizes - then your true lock-in isn’t the editor, it’s your fingers
Anonymous

Switching to Vim: 87% of your joy evaporates in modal context switches; the other 13% gets remapped to Caps Lock
@QutePoet 4y

I don't really understand why people use Vim in 2021. It's pretty straightforward but Emacs, for example is cool combine which also doesn't require X-server.
1. @yimgzz 4y
  
  Cause vi installed by default on all linux or osx
  
  @QutePoet 4y
  
  It's good program. For editing configuration files it's nice solution. But for programming there are more much more comfortable programs.
  
  @yimgzz 4y
  
  For programming I prefer jetbrains IDEs, not text editors.. but the same vim support code highlighting
2. @aefremov2600 4y
  
  you must be fun at parties
3. @k_scranton 4y
  
  mostly the normal mode, every other app is non-modal and once you get used to the modal approach you'll never look back
  
  @QutePoet 4y
  
  Where can I read about this structure comparison?
  
  @CcxCZ 4y
  
  :h index.txt There also are plenty of chetsheets online.
  
  @CcxCZ 4y
  
  Vim is definitely not the only modal editor or vi clone. But it certainly takes it to the extreme: https://rawgit.com/darcyparker/1886716/raw/eab57dfe784f016085251771d65a75a471ca22d4/vimModeStateDiagram.svg http://www.viemu.com/vi-vim-cheat-sheet.gif Other popular vi clones: Elvis Evil (Emacs Vi Layer) Kate (toggleable vi mode from settings) Nvi (default on BSDs) Busybox vi (default on embedded systems, kinda awful) Other modal editors that don't derive directly from vi are: https://github.com/martanne/vis http://kakoune.org/
@sashakity 4y

oh boy is this another opportunity for me to shill for micro
1. @RiedleroD 4y
  
  I like nano
  
  @sashakity 4y
  
  why
  
  @RiedleroD 4y
  
  easy to use :)
  
  @sashakity 4y
  
  not really, micro is easier and a lot more powerful
  
  @RiedleroD 4y
  
  it doesn't come preinstalled though, does it?
  
  @sashakity 4y
  
  neither does nano
  
  @RiedleroD 4y
  
  it does doe
  
  @prirai 4y
  
  It does
  
  @sashakity 4y
  
  it does not come preinstalled on alpine, arch, nor debian if i recall
  
  @slnt_opp 4y
  
  Comes on Debian and Ubuntu for sure Idk about arch, but is on manjaro Alpine indeed, but that's the point of alpine isn't it?
@prirai 4y

My nano
@kral_na_severu 4y

looks pretty cool
@cringle_flex 4y

Yesterday thought of moving to nvim Today got panic attack
1. @janeoa 4y
  
  XD
@chekoopa 4y

fix your i3status btw
1. @prirai 4y
  
  Getting off it, no color output :-\
  
  @chekoopa 4y
  
  Seems i3bar doesn't digest plain ANSI colors. Consider adding output_format = "i3bar" in i3status settings. Via: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/i3status-not-colorized.57667/
  
  @chekoopa 4y
  
  But I've actually switched to polybar long ago. Mostly because of mouse actions (i.e. volume and backlight control with wheel scroll).
  
  @prirai 4y
  
  Nice, is it wayland compatible?
  
  @RiedleroD 4y
  
  if you want polybar on wayland, maybe check out waybar :) No, it's not similar to swaybar, which is shit btw
  
  @RiedleroD 4y
  
  my current desktop + waybar
  
  @prirai 4y
  
  I have that configured already
  
  @RiedleroD 4y
  
  oh, nice
  
  @chekoopa 4y
  
  ehh, no. https://github.com/polybar/polybar/issues/414
  
  @QutePoet 4y
  
  My favourite imba action is to open and close windows with mouse wheel.
@sashakity 4y

my micro 😎
@SHPR8 4y

I don't use vim most often, but the navigation language it has is amazing, if you go through the hassles of learning it. I use vs code with vim plugins for this exact thing. The way you don't really need mouse, and you can chain actions and verbs is the best there is.
@Alexmitter 4y

Vim/Vi is like a religion, you have to be thoroughly indoctrinated to like it and the insanity behind the modal editor concept. Only psychopaths use it.
1. @sylfn 4y
  
  i use vim on my netbook (sic, welcome from 2010) because it works, and works well enough to be used as a substitute for IDE
  
  @Alexmitter 4y
  
  Nice cat, otherwise psychopath
  
  @RiedleroD 4y
  
  Indeed a very nice cat, I'd say 9/10
  
  @sylfn 4y
  
  forgot to say, my netbook is on Windows XP [and it still works], and vim runs under cygwin this is what I am called psycho for [ru: и за это меня считают ненормальным]
  
  @feskow 4y
  
  This message was very ed
  
  @feskow 4y
  
  Welcome to Linux community
  
  @Alexmitter 4y
  
  Nice cat
  
  @RiedleroD 4y
  
  *cheesy TV intro* nice cats and psychopaths the community of code & maths nice cats and psychopaths come here and learn about obscure archs dev with memes, as it seems, the group is an oddity (background music) left and right, in every sight, vim users is all I see (buildup to final refrain) nice cats and psychopats I guess the latter is common nice cats and psychopats sit down and watch, cause the show is commin' here
  
  @RiedleroD 4y
  
  yeah I wrote a cheesy TV intro, what are you gonna do abt it?
  
  @feskow 4y
  
  Go to fiever and order a song
  
  @RiedleroD 4y
  
  I could technically make it myself
  
  @feskow 4y
  
  Sounds like a sitcom into in my head
  
  @RiedleroD 4y
  
  absolutely what I was going for

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The True Cost of Switching to Vim

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