Efficiency :3… if you need to edit text in terminal a lot, getting good with vi/vim can save a decent chunk of time, due to all the keyboard shortcuts it has
And then other people do it cause the pros do and it’s perceived as cool
Basically just the keyboard commands afaik. In vim you move through lines with hjkl keys instead of the arrow keys, and most commands are one letter (because it works through switching modes) instead of needing to hit ctrl for every one. In effect it lets you keep your fingers on the home row at all times which means you can more seamlessly go between moving around to typing, as well as minimizing having to stretch your fingers, so less hurting hands for long editing sessions
Personally I’ve not had enough of a need to use vim or vi or any of the other related text editors, so I can’t give more concrete examples, but ye :3… for most stuff and most people nano is gonna be good enough
It’s powerful, lightweight, and ubiquitous. If you do sysadmin work, remote into a random machine, and need to update a config file, it probably has vi installed already. It’s also extensible enough to use as a full IDE.
Personally, I like it because of how fast it feels and because I can do everything while keeping my hands on the home row of the keyboard.
I only recently switched from vim to VSCode and I refuse to use any editor without vim emulation.
Regular expressions for quick and efficient and precise search and replace, modal editing which allows me to type di" to ‘delete inside current double quotes’ (needs vim-surround plugin), typing 123gg to go to line 123, press % to switch between any pair of marching braces, brackets or parentheses, and all sorts of such efficient goodies.
It’s not only efficient, vi has a whole concept, a philosophy how you can build quick editing commands. It’s not like remembering random shortcuts like Ctrl-C Ctrl-V. Once you understand the language, it becomes second nature and you can translate something you want to do into 5 key strokes which would need 100 otherwise or would involve the mouse and clicking and selecting etc.
I’m not even that good at vim, I’m just using the surface features.
It has very good reasons why every notable editor provides some form of vi editing emulation.
If you haven’t already, try Flatseal, it’s a gui to deal w/ Flatpak permission (such a PITA).
The last time I broke my system, it was because I removed a folder called /home/monstrosity/home/monstrosity/.
When I deleted the weird duplicate home folder, it broke the entire desktop environment & I had to use the terminal to log in and reinstall. I have no idea which of my numerous ‘fucking around’ sessions caused any of it lol
I’m getting better at finding new ways to break my installation. Now I don’t mess with things and just use it as is. Might start messing with stuff on my laptop rather than PC so I can mess up there instead.
Not me! It’s been too reliable and everything that I need works fine without much effort at all, so I never get any experience troubleshooting or using the command line.
Wait, you guys are getting better? /j
im still stuck in vi hell… help… cannot exit program
Have you tried standing up from your computer and going outside? It’s the only 100% reliable way I’ve found to exit vim.
Arson is also good.
I usually shut off the mains.
That’s why you install Emacs and never look back. Everything you need in one program. No need to exit at all.
I think there’s even an editor in there, at least one of the old greybeards at work said something to that effect.
There is, I’m pretty sure of it. But, I can’t remember where?!
There’s no exiting vi, gotta buy a new computer
Dude, just reboot the machine, as long as vi is not autostarting you should be good
I added vi to startup and I can’t modify my startup items because I can’t figure out how to save in vi
I’m sorry, but i can’t save you anymore. I promise to remeber you until my last day on earth
Is this what they call a boot loop?
The only thing i know about vi is how to exit it lol.
Shit, I’m trying to remember from just the memes. Was it something like :q! or am I misremembering it?
Yes,
:q!in normal mode to exit without saving changes.All jokes aside, why do people even bother with vi?
Efficiency :3… if you need to edit text in terminal a lot, getting good with vi/vim can save a decent chunk of time, due to all the keyboard shortcuts it has
And then other people do it cause the pros do and it’s perceived as cool
Why is it better than just using nano or whatever?
Basically just the keyboard commands afaik. In vim you move through lines with hjkl keys instead of the arrow keys, and most commands are one letter (because it works through switching modes) instead of needing to hit ctrl for every one. In effect it lets you keep your fingers on the home row at all times which means you can more seamlessly go between moving around to typing, as well as minimizing having to stretch your fingers, so less hurting hands for long editing sessions
Personally I’ve not had enough of a need to use vim or vi or any of the other related text editors, so I can’t give more concrete examples, but ye :3… for most stuff and most people nano is gonna be good enough
People use Vim to look cool?
It’s a brave new World.
Well to look “nerd cool” cause admittedly if you even know vim you’re like a nerd x3
And about that, whats the best discords for linux people
It’s powerful, lightweight, and ubiquitous. If you do sysadmin work, remote into a random machine, and need to update a config file, it probably has vi installed already. It’s also extensible enough to use as a full IDE.
Personally, I like it because of how fast it feels and because I can do everything while keeping my hands on the home row of the keyboard.
Software developer here.
I only recently switched from vim to VSCode and I refuse to use any editor without vim emulation.
Regular expressions for quick and efficient and precise search and replace, modal editing which allows me to type di" to ‘delete inside current double quotes’ (needs vim-surround plugin), typing 123gg to go to line 123, press % to switch between any pair of marching braces, brackets or parentheses, and all sorts of such efficient goodies.
It’s not only efficient, vi has a whole concept, a philosophy how you can build quick editing commands. It’s not like remembering random shortcuts like Ctrl-C Ctrl-V. Once you understand the language, it becomes second nature and you can translate something you want to do into 5 key strokes which would need 100 otherwise or would involve the mouse and clicking and selecting etc.
I’m not even that good at vim, I’m just using the surface features.
It has very good reasons why every notable editor provides some form of vi editing emulation.
Because especially for very low profile systems its more than enough, so you dont need to use something like vim or nvim.
Absolutely! I never break my system the same way twice.
Real :3
Though actually most of the stuff I had not work on my system was cause of flatpak permissions x3
If you haven’t already, try Flatseal, it’s a gui to deal w/ Flatpak permission (such a PITA).
The last time I broke my system, it was because I removed a folder called /home/monstrosity/home/monstrosity/.
When I deleted the weird duplicate home folder, it broke the entire desktop environment & I had to use the terminal to log in and reinstall. I have no idea which of my numerous ‘fucking around’ sessions caused any of it lol
I’m getting better at finding new ways to break my installation. Now I don’t mess with things and just use it as is. Might start messing with stuff on my laptop rather than PC so I can mess up there instead.
Not me! It’s been too reliable and everything that I need works fine without much effort at all, so I never get any experience troubleshooting or using the command line.
Based linux stability /hj