Have you Vim-ed today?
It becomes my daily question for all peers around me. Before they get pissed, I should keep bugging them until they try it out and start coding with it. :) This is my mission!
Recently I am addicted to Vim! Obviously.
If you are a coder/programmer like me, there must be a point of time when you told yourself: This is it! I am going to sit down and start learning Vim and be awesome! Then found out you gave up just before you finished thinking about it.
You hit some roadblocks; mentally and physically. Your mind, telling you that learning Vim has a steep up curve and your fingers, telling you that H, J, K, L keys are not meant for navigation, not even mentioned you have no idea how to start editing or exit Vim. So you gave up.
I had mine 3 years ago and I gave up.
Till last month, I stumble upon a video (forgot which video though) about Vim and started to think how could I replace my beloved IDE — WebStorm with Vim. This is purely coming out from curiosity.
I know by heart that Vim would never ever replace WebStorm, because you can’t replace apple with orange. Vim, by itself is not an IDE, just an editor! I know I need GUI for resolving conflicts, I need GUI for my Git history and my soup of shortcuts for coding; features that I have been using for years and burnt deeply into my muscle memory.
Could it be possible switching out WebStorm and replace with Vim?
Yes, and no.
Yes, I can ditch WebStorm and start coding in Vim from now.
No, because there will be no more GUI for resolving conflicts, no more GUI for Git history, and no more point-and-click with your mouse. You will be learning new ways for resolving conflicts, new ways to look at your Git log, and new ways to code!
Since last month, I have been proactively paying attention to articles/screencasts that related to Vim. I have been watching and learning bit by bit about Vim, and how can I get benefits out of Vim that WebStorm or other IDE/editor can’t provide.
I was not fully convinced at first.
Surprisingly, the more I mess with it, the more I get hooked. You will feel that you have learnt something new every time you finish a Vim session. It’s like magic! It’s like learning martial art, day by day, bit by bit, you improve and refine your coding Kung-fu.
I hope I could tell you how much I feel contented and satisfied about this but I cant. You need to try it and let the feeling sink to your heart~
