Wonderful Vi

I've just recently jumped on the vim train via the Neovim VS Code plugin. For a while now i've considered diving in, but felt completely out of my depth until starting a new job recently where some teammates use it exclusively. I have been getting used to the vim bindings over the last month or so and it's introduced a layer of fun to programming that i've not had in a long time.

Doing simple tasks still takes longer than it would using other editors, but it's made worthwhile by the occasional "holy shit" moment when i learn a new command or write my own macro. The muscle memory will take a while to drill in but I can absolutely see it improving my efficiency after some time. I recommend it for anyone who's considering

After many years of learning the absolute minimum amount of Vi I could get away with I decided to give Helix a try some months back, after feeling my VSCode setup was getting a little unwieldy.

I didn't really expect to stick with it, but within a few hours I was productive enough to keep going and was genuinely surprised by how much I liked using it.

But it turned out I was right - I didn't end up sticking with it

...but very much in the opposite way to what I'd imagined. Helix turned out to be the gateway to editing in the terminal. I loved it, but realised I wanted something a little more customizable than Helix currently offers (although it's so good you almost don't need to configure it!) And after a lot of thought I also concluded the sheer ubiquity of Vim bindings was probably going to offer a better investment of my time (for now at least). And so I've been happily using Neovim for some time now. If somebody had told me this is what my development setup would be a year or two ago, after a decade in Xcode, I 100% definitely would not have believed them.

I suppose those of us who have used vi(m) and terminals and command-line tools for years or decades should welcome DHH. Better late than never!

I had the good fortune to attend DHH introducing Rails at OSCON years ago. After he finished his presentation the first questions asked about which editor (TextMate) and font he used.

Similarly, Steve Jobs’ choice of jeans and black turtleneck, and Zuckerberg’s hoodies, got imitated and I think mistaken for the qualities that led to success. I expect DHH will cause a similar rush to Neovim and terminal apps, for the same bad reason: imitating superficial features of a successful person.

Funny to read about vi in the form of Neovim replacing VSCode. vi actually replaced editors much more clunky and tedious.

Im sad, that DHH is promoting vi like editors so much. It distracts new programmers from what is really important and gives them false impression of productivity.