Hacker News Reader

Comment by p-e-w | Hacker News Reader

> How common are the keybindings used in existing editors?

The whole point of widget toolkits is that the keybindings for input fields are the same everywhere. I use Linux and almost exclusively run GTK-based apps, and every text input across the whole system behaves the exact same way, with consistent keybindings for navigation, undo/redo, copy+paste etc. This is how good UI should work.

Platform conventions are important, and it's the job of individual programs to adapt to them – not the other way round. Vim fails big time in this regard. Can you make Firefox's form inputs use Vim keybindings? If not, there's your inconsistency already.

View on HN

> Platform conventions are important, and it's the job of individual programs to adapt to them – not the other way round. Vim fails big time in this regard. Can you make Firefox's form inputs use Vim keybindings? If not, there's your inconsistency already.

I disagree with that. And the world doesn't have to be perfect.

If you use Vim and you like it (it takes LOT of effort), you will adapt the platform to the Vim ways whenever possible. Everytime I encounter something I cannot vim-ize, I'm pissed but I have to put up with it. It's like working with Windows.

For the browser, you can use Vim binding for navigation, and edit with Vim. But again, this is not mandatory per se to benefit from Vim as a developer.

> Can you make Firefox's form inputs use Vim keybindings?

Do you mean something like this: https://github.com/glacambre/firenvim?

Yes, but I mean without an ugly hack that involves spawning a process every time you want to edit a browser text field.

"Yes, but ..." is a great way to move your goalposts.

On another note, do you expect your hotkeys from your Office program to work in a Firefox form field?

It's not an ugly hack, it's about not reinventing the wheel. Pure js solutions also exist but they're a subset of the features, and using native vim gives you the benefits of plugins you already have on the system.

It's a feature, and it follows the unix philosophy. But I get that not everyone needs or wants it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com