Vim 9.1 Released With Smooth Scrolling, Support For Vim9 Classes

[shinger]

VIM, The only text editor I constantly never remeber how to save and exit from

Press ESCAPE (to go in command mode) and then press and hold SHIFT and tap twice zz. So it will be SHIFT+zz and if you want to quit without saving it is SHIFT+zq.

[muncrief]

I started working in the Silicon Valley in the late 70s as a technician, and secured my first engineering job, as a firmware engineer, in 1982. CGA had just been introduced but no one could really use it yet, Vim hadn't been created, and though Emacs existed somewhere it didn't become available until a few years later.

But when Emacs was finally available it was like freakin' magic! It was the first advanced text editor of the time and transformed coding much for the better. Heck, just being able to split the screen was stunning. Some years later Vim was introduced, and many were saying Emacs would soon become extinct, but wow, to me it just seemed so unnecessarily complicated that I never gravitated to it. And I did give it a chance multiple times over the years because some of the mentors I greatly respected really loved it. However I would always return to Emacs fairly quickly, and just kept a Vim instruction book handy for cases when I had to use it.

Yes, that's right all you youngsters out there, there was a time when we had to have a plethora of actual paper books to do our work! And if it was too late at night and the computer book store and libraries were closed we were out of luck for the evening, as there was no internet. But the most difficult thing at the time was keeping up with rapidly changing and ever evolving devices of those feverish days, and vendors would do regular data book dumps every 3 to 6 months, or sometimes more. So all of us had libraries not only at work, but also at home. In fact it was a point of pride to have as many shelves of data books at home as possible.

And good lord, by the time we'd gotten used to the latest oscilloscopes and logic analyzers and emulators, and our companies had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on them, they were outdated and we had to buy updated versions and learn to use them anew.

I'm telling you, it was a hell of a fun and exciting time to be an engineer, one that I can't imagine ever being replicated again. We were creating a whole new world so quickly we could barely catch our breath.

I apologize for the long rant on an article simply about Vim, but when I read it all those memories came flooding back. And it's left me both happy and remorseful at the same time. But I guess that's the beauty, and horror, of age.

Living in a new time, a better time, but ever longing for the past.

[coder]

in 1982. CGA had just been introduced but no one could really use it yet, Vim hadn't been created, and though Emacs existed somewhere it didn't become available until a few years later.

vi was written in 1976, by Sun co-founder Bill Joy. vim is a vi clone. I used vi on Solaris, when I first started out. Once I discovered vim had unlimited undo (and redo), I was an instant convert.

Some years later Vim was introduced, and many were saying Emacs would soon become extinct, but wow, to me it just seemed so unnecessarily complicated

Ah, the irony of an Emacs user saying that. The beauty of vi is in the elegance of the noun-verb structure of its command mode. I wish command mode were a bit more consistent and better designed, but does create a nice language for editing. By contrast, Emacs has a whole bag full of commands that ends up being much more to learn, remember, and execute, if you want to be as proficient.

Another cool thing about vi is that you can express edits and movement in higher-level terms, so that you don't have to do as many repeated keystrokes to move the cursor. This really helps when you're editing over a high-latency connection. At my job, I sometimes log into systems over transoceanic links. Using vi over those distances is no big deal, for me.

Yes, that's right all you youngsters out there, there was a time when we had to have a plethora of actual paper books to do our work!

I learned vi from the O'Reilly book with this guy on the cover (I seem to recall the full size book was green):

And if it was too late at night and the computer book store and libraries were closed we were out of luck for the evening,

Manpages are available 24/7.

Anyway, I seem to recall the Borders and Barnes & Noble stores near me were open 'till 11. Microcenter used to have a very good books department, but they closed at 9.

vendors would do regular data book dumps every 3 to 6 months, or sometimes more.

Once upon a time, you just had to pick up the phone and ask Intel for a set of their x86 programming references and they'd ship you a set, for free.

[Old Grouch]

Press ESCAPE (to go in command mode) and then press and hold SHIFT and tap twice zz. So it will be SHIFT+zz and if you want to quit without saving it is SHIFT+zq.

Huh? That's so non-obvious. Why isn't it the intuitive key sequence Esc colon lower-case-q exclamation mark?

The ED and TECO editors are ridiculously easy to leave: q, and <Escape><Escape>EX respectively. The level of intuitiveness in TECO is unbelievable.

[sabian2008]

Huh? That's so non-obvious. Why isn't it the intuitive key sequence Esc colon lower-case-q exclamation mark?

The ED and TECO editors are ridiculously easy to leave: q, and <Escape><Escape>EX respectively. The level of intuitiveness in TECO is unbelievable.

You quit the same way in vim:
- :wq (save & quit)
- :q (quit)
- :q! (quit and discard unsaved changes)

Easy peasy.

[S.Pam]

Press ESCAPE (to go in command mode) and then press and hold SHIFT and tap twice zz. So it will be SHIFT+zz and if you want to quit without saving it is SHIFT+zq.

That is rather cumbersome... Not to mention difficult on a mobile ssh session..

[schmidtbag]

When it comes to vi and its derivatives, other than those who are fluently familiar, on a very limited keyboard, or, because it's pretty much guaranteed to be available on all unix-like systems, I have a hard time understanding why anyone would prefer it over alternatives. I'm not aware of anything it can do that others can't. Some people like the way you navigate it, but many text editors have a "vi mode". Regex is crazy powerful, but that's commonly found elsewhere. It's minimal on system resources, but so are countless others. vim is expandable via plugins, but so are many others.
My only real gripe with vi* is how unintuitive it is. Even people who swear by it and are power users still don't fully know how to take advantage of it. When you have an 8th edition book on how to use a text editor that is nearly 500 pages long, I have to question whether it's actually a good option. It's a tool - if you have to work that hard to know how to use it, I question whether it's really the right choice.

[Old Grouch]

When it comes to vi and its derivatives, other than those who are fluently familiar, on a very limited keyboard, or, because it's pretty much guaranteed to be available on all unix-like systems, I have a hard time understanding why anyone would prefer it over alternatives. I'm not aware of anything it can do that others can't. Some people like the way you navigate it, but many text editors have a "vi mode". Regex is crazy powerful, but that's commonly found elsewhere. It's minimal on system resources, but so are countless others. vim is expandable via plugins, but so are many others.
My only real gripe with vi* is how unintuitive it is. Even people who swear by it and are power users still don't fully know how to take advantage of it. When you have an 8th edition book on how to use a text editor that is nearly 500 pages long, I have to question whether it's actually a good option. It's a tool - if you have to work that hard to know how to use it, I question whether it's really the right choice.

Applied Mathematics is 'just' a tool.

Experts can sometimes make complicated things look simple to people who do not understand the the things. This does not mean the things are intrinsically simple, merely that the experts are good at what they do. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that a curated experience is representative of reality.

[coder]

I have a hard time understanding why anyone would prefer it over alternatives. I'm not aware of anything it can do that others can't.

Efficiency. Command mode is both a concise way to tell the editor what you want to do and more closely matches the way we logically think about the task of editing.

My only real gripe with vi* is how unintuitive it is.

Yes, it has a learning curve. You need to invest a little time, before you see the payoff. It's unfortunate that "intuitive" got conflated with "good", in the software industry.

Think about programming languages. I'll bet you wouldn't say programming languages are only good if they are easy to learn!

Even people who swear by it and are power users still don't fully know how to take advantage of it. When you have an 8th edition book on how to use a text editor that is nearly 500 pages long, I have to question whether it's actually a good option. It's a tool - if you have to work that hard to know how to use it, I question whether it's really the right choice.

This is a misguided critique. I'm sure you never looked at the contents of the book, to see just how much of it is about basic usage, vs. scripting, customization, and internals.

Although vi has a steep learning curve, it's actually pretty small. You can be about 90% efficient after learning quite a small amount of it.

As for what most of that book covers, I've never delved into VIM scripting or custom modes. If it has a mode for the language I'm using, I'll typically use it. However, unlike editors like EMACS, not having a mode doesn't rob you of most of the editor's features or power.

[shinger]

That is rather cumbersome... Not to mention difficult on a mobile ssh session..

For mobile then you use :wq! off course. But i think you are maybe that person that just does not want to use it. Well i am the person when i spin a new Linux VM and my bootstrap ansible playbook is deleting nano .

It could also be that you are not using it daily. As a Linux Engineer myself, i use it daily for work besides at home for my own projects.