Re:Vim Is Saving Me Hours of Work When Writing Books and Cou...
by nickjj on Tuesday February 12, 2019 @11:58AM
(#19145206)
OP here. What I'm noticing is that Vim kind of helps you not have to switch contexts.
For example, let's say you want to put the cursor next to a specific word in a sentence.
If you use the mouse, now you need to stop writing, goto the mouse, find your mouse pointer, look at the mouse pointer, then move the mouse to the word you want to be at, click the mouse and start typing again.
I'm an avid gamer. I'm super used to this. I can move my mouse at pixel precision and do it very quickly, but even if it's fast, it's still a context switch.
With Vim, it almost feels like Vim itself is another input device that's almost a mind control device. I can just direct my eyes to the word I want to move to, hit 3 keys and then have my cursor jump directly to it (by using vim-sneak and pressing any 2 characters of the word).
Even if doing this is only equal speed to the mouse, it's still a win in my book because it feels less of a context switch. Plus if you want to talk about mistakes, looking at the word you want to jump to instead of your mouse cursor forces you to look at the word, so you have 1 more chance of avoiding a spelling mistake -- although to be fair, most editors including Vim can visually show you these errors.
For example, let's say you want to put the cursor next to a specific word in a sentence.
If you use the mouse, now you need to stop writing, goto the mouse, find your mouse pointer, look at the mouse pointer, then move the mouse to the word you want to be at, click the mouse and start typing again.
I'm an avid gamer. I'm super used to this. I can move my mouse at pixel precision and do it very quickly, but even if it's fast, it's still a context switch.
With Vim, it almost feels like Vim itself is another input device that's almost a mind control device. I can just direct my eyes to the word I want to move to, hit 3 keys and then have my cursor jump directly to it (by using vim-sneak and pressing any 2 characters of the word).
Even if doing this is only equal speed to the mouse, it's still a win in my book because it feels less of a context switch. Plus if you want to talk about mistakes, looking at the word you want to jump to instead of your mouse cursor forces you to look at the word, so you have 1 more chance of avoiding a spelling mistake -- although to be fair, most editors including Vim can visually show you these errors.