How to switch to a new IDE in an afternoon

I love Vim, too, but I think the method outlined in the article does not work for learning Vim at all. The method basically works because every IDE has a similar standard set of actions, only organized differently. Vim on the other hand has its very own set of actions which does not map to any other application at all (with the possible exception for Emacs).

Thus, whenever a non-vimmer is watching a vimmer he only sees magic happening, but not understanding why or how. It takes an experienced vimmer to learn from other vimmers. This has happened to me a lot, but has not enlightened anyone yet. (Does this imply that IDEs are plumbing and Vim is magic?)

I'd reached a plateau with vim and I was good with it, but knew I didn't have the full power. Then I started doing other things with it than just coding, and it moved me to a whole new level.

I started writing text, stuff like my blog and emails, and suddenly a whole lot of extra commands started to make sense. For example, block commands like '}' and ')', and formatting with 'gqap', and so on. I was now doing really powerful stuff at the word, line, sentence and paragraph levels. Before I could do 'cw' and be happy; I knew there was a 'cW', but who could be bothered. Now I really understand and I can use all that without thinking.

Then I was able to take those new skills back to writing code, so my vim-fu when coding is so much more powerful. It is a whole new level above what I had before.

And sadly, xcode4 appears to not let you use vim as your editor anymore. Not looking forward to next week.