I have been using Vim for several years now and I still struggle with basic-level movement commands. Like, I never remember if f-h will move me to |hello or to h|ello. If those are working for you, that is great, but I appreciate some alternatives there. The usual Vim approaches ("do vimtutor!" or "practice one new command a week!") are not working for me.

> I never remember if f-h will move me to |hello or to h|ello.

…Isn't the answer "neither"?

If the cursor is somewhere before that `h`, then doing `fh` will put the cursor on that `h`. If you want to enter insert mode before that `h`, you would press `i`, or `a` to enter insert mode after the `h`.

You are probably right. Which is my point. Vim movement commands remain unintuitive to me, even after using the thing for years.

It’s extremely intuitive to me. It’s more like muscle memory than logical thinking, I think you might be thinking too analytically.

If it works for you, that is great. It doesn't work for me.

That's half-right, I think. The question is, when using a command like "change until" or "change forward", i.e. 'ct' or 'cf', what will the effect be?

In the case of 'ct', you're going to delete up until the letter, whereas in 'cf', it will include the letter you're targetting.

It's definitely exactly right, but I tried to word it in a way which didn't make me look like a know-it-all.

> The question is, when using a command like "change until" or "change forward", i.e. 'ct' or 'cf', what will the effect be?

Is this a question? You answered it accurately. The behaviour is consistent here too, though the mnemonics people often use don't always make total sense.

> "change forward" [...] 'cf'

"change find", you mean.

Interesting! I'd always thought of it as "f"orward.

Is there any official reference to it standing for find? Googling has found a few unofficial references, but help doesn't appear to say either way.

In vim's usr_03.txt manual file, it says:

> One of the most useful movement commands is the single-character search command. The command "fx" searches forward in the line for the single character x. Hint: "f" stands for "Find".

That seems official.

Interesting. I always tend to think cursor is on top of character, not before or after it.

jump-mode as in "go to symbol"?

ctrl+W <word> enter - seems you are right :D <3 nano hahah i find more complicated editors just distract with their fancies from what you are doing. inputting and deleting characters.

It's just a learning curve. Over time it starts becoming second nature and you don't even notice that you're doing it. Must like most things we do in our day to day that are actually rather complication functions (driving, writing, walking, etc).

What I do like about the vim keys though is the ability to delete or copy/paste with precision by chaining hotkeys together.

Regarding your searching for a word example, unsurprisingly you can do the same in vi (let alone vim) too:

  / - search forwards
  ? - search backwards

edit: It wasn't me who voted you down by the way. I know you've not complained about it but I wanted to express that I don't agree with you getting downvoted even though I don't agree with the content of your post.

I’ve actually found the opposite - sure there’s a learning curve, but once you get used to it and it becomes second nature, Vim becomes the fastest way to convert thought to code.