After 30 years in front of the keyboard, I decided to refine my craft and learn to touch type. It's been about a month, and I'm improving. Keeping my fingers on "home keys" got me thinking about how often I remove them to touch the mouse. All these keys at my finger tips and they are almost useless for navigation within a file. Hello Vim.
I've used Vim for editing text files on a server for years. I knew the basics: insert mode, save, and exit. One of the powerful features of Vim is its modes. The two primary modes are Normal and Insert. When in normal mode, the keys are used to navigate, copy and paste, find, and much more. You don't need to mouse or cursor keys; in fact, you shouldn't be using them. To modify text, you enter insert mode, which is the only mode in most text editors. The capabilities of Vim are mind-blowing.
To get started, I watched several videos on Youtube and began a slow transition. While it's a gradual transition, you will see the benefits quickly. I hope to replaced VS Code with Vim someday. I love the idea of using the same tool proficiently on a desktop, VPS, or Raspberry Pi.
How to get started
My recommendation:
- Vim Mode - using your existing IDE, such as VS Code, adding a Vim extension to give you basic Vim workflow and key bindings. This is a good bridge from where you are today to Vim 100%.
- Six Part Series - Recently, Youtuber, The Primeagan, released an excellent six part series to learn Vim. His videos are educational and entertaining. Watch video 1 and don't moved to the second video until you don't need to think about basic navigation keys. I'm not through them all yet.
- Explore - There are many Vim tutorial available online. You them to explore the capabilities of Vim to do things easier and faster.