Wow... VIM is awesome!!!

I'm just getting into using VIM as my primary text editor, and man is it amazing! I love the modal system. It's hard to learn at first, but that's just because it's different. Once you get some of the commands (at least the basic ones) then it is SO powerful and efficient. Hell, I don't even need to take my fingers off of the home row on my keyboard because I can maneuver my cursor with HJKL for left, up, down, right (something like that)!

I really advise you to go check out VIM if you haven't already. www.vim.org is the home site, the one that runs in the terminal is already bundled with ubuntu and mac OS X i think, if not just type sudo aptitude install vim-full (just type vim in the terminal when you have it) and there are "GUI" versions which just basically run in their own window.

Winter break is coming up soon and as nerdy as this sounds, I'll probably spend some of that learning VIM and maybe even exploring some coding basics.

It's hard to believe VIM is 15 years old and its following is still growing. It's based on Vi, which is 30 years old, which is based on some other editors all the way back to one called QED from a LONG time ago, if I'm not mistaken.

VIM ROCKS!!!!

I'm just getting into using Microsoft Word 2007 as my primary text editor, and man is it amazing! I love the ribbon system. It's hard to learn at first, but that's just because it's different. Once you get some of the shortcuts (at least the basic ones) then it is SO powerful and efficient. Hell, I don't even need to take my fingers off of the desk because I can maneuver my cursor with my hand for left, up, down, right (something like that)!

I really advise you to go check out Microsoft Word 2007 if you haven't already. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/default.aspx is the home site, the one that everybody and your brother runs the is already already available online to download i think, if not just type Office 2007 (just type office 2007 in google when you have it) and there are "Student" versions which just basically pay for themselves.

Winter break is coming up soon and as nerdy as this sounds, I'll probably spend some of that learning Office 2007 and maybe even exploring some coding basics.

It's hard to believe Office is 19 years old and its following is still growing. It's based on C++, which is 25 years old, which is based on some other editors all the way back to one called C from a LONG time ago, if I'm not mistaken.

MICROSOFT WORD 2007 ROCKS!!!!

Wow, way to be a jerk.

Redrazor39 said: Wow, way to be a jerk.

I promise it was in good fun ):P

Yup, once you learn VIM, it's superior.

acelin said: I promise it was in good fun ):P

Fun like shooting your neighbor's car tires probably

RiceMonster said: Yup, once you learn VIM, it's superior.

Agreed. I assume its far more reliable than, say, MS Word because its much simpler.

Redrazor39 said: Agreed. I assume its far more reliable than, say, MS Word because its much simpler.

Ahh, but simple does not not always equal easy.

Anyways, how is it different from nano?

By the way, for those interested, I highly recommend the book *Learning the vi editor* by Linda Lamb and Arnold Robbins (from O'Reilly).

If you want to learn vi(m), that's the book to get.

Oh, and also, vim is not an acronym and should therefore not be capitalized. :)

CholericKoala said: Ahh, but simple does not not always equal easy.

Anyways, how is it different from nano? I read that article about Windows 7 regarding simple vs. easy, and it's really opened my eyes to a "good" UI.

Also, I've never tried nano, so I'm not sure.

I love vim too. But vim is easier if you are on Dvorak, since the keys "; q j k" are beside each other. Makes for easy movement of ":q". ;)

I REALLY wanted to learn dvorak, but I haven't had the time and I can't even find where to purchase a good dvorak keyboard. Right now I'm just settling with sprawling my fingers all across the keyboard for almost every word.

I use Medit, it looks similar to gedit, and has an option to use syntax highlighting with the exact same colours. But unlike Gedit, it's not tied down to any DE.

Redrazor39 said: Fun like shooting your neighbor's car tires probably

C'mon, it's not that bad. I can but admit that I chuckled while reading his reply. :)

The key difference between nano and vi, from my experience, is that if you get dropped into a vi shell, you have to really know what you're doing if you want to get anything done (the only command I know by heart in vi is Ctrl+C ;-)). Whereas with nano, all the major alt+* shortcuts are displayed at the bottom for quick reference.

I hear from a lot of people around here that vi is a great editor when you figure out how to use it. I prefer GUI based text editors, myself, but use nano when working with config files.

Eisenwinter said: But unlike Gedit, it's not tied down to any DE.

Define "tied" please.

http://packages.ubuntu.com/intrepid/gedit http://packages.ubuntu.com/intrepid/medit

The dependencies are almost the same.

aaaantoine said: I prefer GUI based text editors, myself

There's gvim. ;)

Metallion said: C'mon, it's not that bad. I can but admit that I chuckled while reading his reply. :)

I know, it was kinda funny when i read it too. Anyway, that's over.

Does anyone know of some online resources where I can learn to be a VIM power user?

Redrazor39 said: I know, it was kinda funny when i read it too. Anyway, that's over.

Does anyone know of some online resources where I can learn to be a VIM power user?

:lolflag:

Redrazor39 said:

Does anyone know of some online resources where I can learn to be a VIM power user?

Don't be stingy and see #9. ;)

I just realized how stupid that question was, seeing as there's a long user manual (and ya there's that book I could check out)

But at least I got some discussion flowing; I had to say SOMETHING

There's also a lot of tutorials on vim.org, I guess they must be goodo but I never really looked into them, the book by Lam & Robbins was enough for me.

why am i getting these error messages?

bash: nanotutor: command not found

bash: nano-tutor: command not found

I'd personally just start by googling vim cheat sheet and keep any resulting page next to me while using vim as my primary text editor. This way you'll learn more than from reading any book I think

CholericKoala said: Ahh, but simple does not not always equal easy.

Anyways, how is it different from nano?

Lots of things. Nano is a lot easier to start using, because right when you open it up, it tells you the keyboard shortcuts you'll need. vim doesn't tell you anything. It has tons of shortcuts, and it also has a "command line". Vim is very powerful, you can do all kinds of stuff. For example, you can split the screen to edit two or more files at once, or you can use tabs. Also, vim is a modal editor. To insert text, you hit i. If you want to highlight something, you have to go back into command mode by hitting esc (thats where all the shortcuts, commands and navigating are supposed to be done), and then hit v.

Redrazor39 said: I REALLY wanted to learn dvorak, but I haven't had the time and I can't even find where to purchase a good dvorak keyboard. Right now I'm just settling with sprawling my fingers all across the keyboard for almost every word.

You don't need a Dvorak keyboard to use Dvorak ;) I just bought key labels and relabeled mine, since swapping keys didn't work. It takes about a month of good typing to get used to, but it's worth it :)

How well do Dvorak and Vim work together? Wouldn't it mess up the hjkl thing?

RiceMonster said: How well do Dvorak and Vim work together? Wouldn't it mess up the hjkl thing?

Yes, it does. But I never got used to that, and just use the arrow keys, so it never bothers me. The keys "<shift> ;" are right beside each other, so it makes perfect for quick commands. ;)

Besides, you can get used to anything :D

Dr Small said: Yes, it does. But I never got used to that, and just use the arrow keys, so it never bothers me. The keys "<shift> ;" are right beside each other, so it makes perfect for quick commands. ;)

Besides, you can get used to anything :D

The design of hjkl as the movement keys was done so that you could spend most of the time with your hands on the middle row of the keyboard. I have gotten so used to this that I avoid using the arrow keys altogether on my laptop. I suppose you could remap all the keys to their Dvorak equivalents, but I guess that could be rather unpleasant when you want to talk to Qwerty people about Vim.

mentallaxative said: The design of hjkl as the movement keys was done so that you could spend most of the time with your hands on the middle row of the keyboard. I have gotten so used to this that I avoid using the arrow keys altogether on my laptop. I suppose you could remap all the keys to their Dvorak equivalents, but I guess that could be rather unpleasant when you want to talk to Qwerty people about Vim.

Well, I'm left-handed and use the mouse on the left side anyhow, so placing my hand on the right side of the keyboard is most natural for web navigation (insert, home, pageup, delete, end, pagedown), that my hand normally sets on those keys. :)

Redrazor39 said: Does anyone know of some online resources where I can learn to be a VIM power user?

Instead of searching online, follow the interactive tutorial 'vimtutor' (it should be installed on your system by default, if not then be sure to complain to Mr Shuttleworth :) ).

saulgoode said: Instead of searching online, follow the interactive tutorial 'vimtutor' (it should be installed on your system by default, if not then be sure to complain to Mr Shuttleworth :) ).

Mark Shuttleworth probably uses nano :p

Dr Small said: Mark Shuttleworth probably uses nano :p

And nathangrubb now uses vim :D..

RiceMonster said: How well do Dvorak and Vim work together? Wouldn't it mess up the hjkl thing?

I use the german dvorak layout and its quite intuitive: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/e/e5/Tastatur_dvorak_farbe_optimiert.jpg h and l for left/right with the right hand and j/k with the left hand.

And dont label your keys or rearrange them, just learn touch typing.

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned this.

Never really experimented with editors myself, just stuck to nano because it's what I used first.

conehead77 said: And dont label your keys or rearrange them, just learn touch typing.

I touch type, but in order to efficiently learn Dvorak, I had to learn the mental placement of the keys. Labeling them just helped improve my learning ability.

nathangrubb said: And nathangrubb now uses vim :D..

Of which I am overjoyed! :D

excuse me but what does vm stand for? im a college student and need a good text editor

sportscrazed2 said: excuse me but what does vm stand for? im a college student and need a good text editor

VI iMproved. :D

Redrazor39 said: Fun like shooting your neighbor's car tires probably

that would be fun

M_the_C said: I'm surprised no-one has mentioned this.

Never really experimented with editors myself, just stuck to nano because it's what I used first.

HA HA. frame 4

HymnToLife said: Define "tied" please.

http://packages.ubuntu.com/intrepid/gedit http://packages.ubuntu.com/intrepid/medit

The dependencies are almost the same.

I mean like it's not directly associated with any DE, gedit is the GNOME Editor.

Just tried that vimtutor thing and realised it's not as steep of a learning curve as I had thought. Looks like it could be a very powerful source editing tool although I'll probably just stick with Open office when it comes down to normal text.

Vim is the best text editor imo...

the only time time i dont use it is for python when i copy and paste because in vim it gets messed up for me

d

M_the_C said: I'm surprised no-one has mentioned this.

Never really experimented with editors myself, just stuck to nano because it's what I used first.

i love that one

bp1509 said: I always find it amusing when I see people compare cli tools, especially the ones you KNOW are installed on every single linux system (vi/vim) to GUI tools (gedit, kate, oowriter). You can tell who doesn't use linux at the workplace.

I find it more puzzling when they compare a text editor with a word processor.

I'm obviously a luddite, but I've never understood Vi(m) or emacs. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.

Redrazor39 said: Fun like shooting your neighbor's car tires probably

That can be quite satisfying. Wait, was that out loud?

bp1509 said: I always find it amusing when I see people compare cli tools, especially the ones you KNOW are installed on every single linux system (vi/vim) to GUI tools (gedit, kate, oowriter). You can tell who doesn't use linux at the workplace.

Eh?

bruce89 said: I'm obviously a luddite, but I've never understood Vi(m) or emacs. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.

Vim is an excellent text editor. Emacs is a very good operating system. (joking, don't take me seriously :P)

I have a lot of respect for nano. Vim is faster once you get to know it, but nano is easy to learn and still packs some punch. My fingers just aren't long enough to touch-type the Control key.

I'd like to use Dvorak, but I have to spend too much time on school machines with QWERTY for me to risk mixing things up too much.

cardinals_fan said:

I'd like to use Dvorak, but I have to spend too much time on school machines with QWERTY for me to risk mixing things up too much.

Same here. If only Dvorak had become standard (too bad it was introduced during the great depression, with WWII to follow)