Comment by ubercow13 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ubercow13 | Hacker News Reader

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I have exclusively used vim keys for years now, but even after that time I find some of this just doesn’t ring true. Anything in vi that involves counting some number is usually faster with normal keys or the mouse. For example moving down 20 lines is way faster with the mouse, you just click. With vi you have to count the lines in your head - better hope you don’t lose count half way because two lines blur together. With lines you can use line numbers and mental arithmetic, but not really for any other number+noun combo.

I recognise there are other better ways to move around but they too often have drawbacks, like moving somewhere with ‘/‘. You have to parse the line you want to move to for a unique string that’s close to where you’re going. Then you have to scan over all the text in between to make sure it doesn’t occur too much there.

Maybe I’m still just doing it wrong.

> For example moving down 20 lines is way faster with the mouse, you just click.

Correction - you must move your mouse hand from the keyboard, move the mouse to the desired location, _then_ click.

Ergonomic concern often goes side-by-side with editors like vim.

I'm also not convinced that comparing the simple editor things is demonstrating the value of vim much. It's how easy vim handles the _not_ simple things, and also how easy it is to motion the often unique or rarely used edits, combined with drop-of-the hat programmability, that makes vim a good choice.

Yes, it's certainly more ergonomic and comfortable. Still, I find the mouse pretty fast overall. But I'm pretty good at aiming at things with it after playing FPS games for a while.

>how easy vim handles the _not_ simple things

Agreed, despite any minor differences in movement speed, even '.' by itself is useful enough to never switch back.

You don't have to count. I typically make a rough estimation and go from there. For me that still is faster than putting hand on mouse, searching current cursor position, aim, click, and back to proper keyboard position. Of course ymmv

I remember in grade school where we practised turing to an approximate page in a book. I always think of it like this.

H/M/L is your friend (move to the top/middle/bottom of current screen). Getting to the wanted position usually takes me less time than just moving my right hand to the mouse and back.

Relative number lines solved the counting issue for me in most scenarios.

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