Intro

Currently I have been investing my time in learning how to use Vim. For those who are not familiar with Vim, it is a text editor built into most machines. What is special about Vim is that it is built upon the idea of efficiency and customization. Most Vim users that I have met are die hards and would not give up Vim unless you pry it from their cold dead hands. You also have an equally die hard community that can’t stand Vim, because of it’s steep learning curve. Where do I fall in all of this? Well, I would say that I am too early in the game to say whether I love Vim or hate Vim with a passion. I am hoping with these posts about my Vim experience that I can develop a clear picture on where I stand.

Initial Impressions

Well, let me begin by explaining that I am no wizard master of the keyboard. I would say my typing skills were honed during my teenage years when AOL Instant Messenger was the primary way most teens communicated with each other. I started off typing slow and eventually developed a sense where all the keys were located and my typing speed sky rocketed. OK, I can’t type that quickly, but I’m decent. Because of this shortcoming I have found that I am an incredibly slow Vim user, which defeats the purpose of using Vim at this point.

I also find myself trying to “click” on certain areas just to make a simple change only to find that I need to traverse to said spot using my keyboard alone. Yes, it drives me crazy, but I will say I have gotten better at fighting the urge.

One thing that I do find quite appealing about Vim is the ability to customize it to your particular needs. You want a “tree explorer” to inspect a repository…DONE! You want highlighted syntax…Done! You want a syntax checker that will detect and display errors…..Done and Done! There is really no end to the possibilities. You are honestly only held back by your own imagination.

How to Get Started

As a new user to Vim, it is very easy to get sucked in by all the amazing plugins that are out there and wanting to immediately install them. I urge you to put all that aside. What I would recommend first is to go through Vim’s built in tutorial. You can access the tutorial by typing vimtutor on the command line. The tutor will walk you through all of the basics on how to type and traverse a document. I would also recommend having a cheat sheet at your side to remember some of the important keys you learn about.

After completing the tutorial, I would jump right in. If you have a project you want to work on or a Kata you would like to try, take the opportunity to use Vim. The only way you will get better is if you dedicate/force yourself to use Vim. If you are testing, I would recommend using two Vim windows if you are missing your normal text editor or IDE. If you are super adventurous and just want to get into it, you can use the :split filename command in the vim editor.

Conclusion

Overall, I find Vim to be a mixed bag of “Cool”/ frustrating. I’ll admit it is frustrating only because I have been spoiled by other text editors and IDE’s.

My next post will focus on how to add plugins to your Vim environment.