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Comment by zxcvcxz | Hacker News Reader

Still no CLI mode for editing text. Vim has had this for years. How am I supposed to integrate this behemoth into my work flow if I can't even run it in a terminal?

It's just too clunky for my taste.

It's also hilarious that Atom gets shat on for data collection when no one cares that VS does it too. Microsoft can do no wrong, only OSS projects have standards to live up to.

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You're asking for VS Code to be a completely different product. VS Code is a GUI text editor like Sublime and Atom. There's no reason for it to run in a terminal. Vim and Emacs are classical CLI based text editors. Are you asking for an alternative to those?

First you say:

>completely different product

then call them both

>text editors

emacs and (g)vim have a gui mode.

Yes, they're both text editors, but they're completely different classes of text editors. MS Word is also a text editor, but it would be ridiculous to fault it for not having a CLI. It's nice that Emacs and Vim have GUI modes, but I doubt they're the primary way users use those editors. Emacs/Vim and VS Code/Sublime/Atom fulfill different needs and preferences.

I'm curious about your answer to this: would you argue that MS should combine Word and VS Code into one text editor?

FWIW, I recall a time when Word used have a CLI. My memory fades, but I think it was either v4 or v5.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Word#Origins_and_gro...

The Internet Archive seems to have a version listed on the 'Abandonware' listings.

https://archive.org/details/msdos_microsoft_word5

Perhaps its use cases are more narrowly focused than vim. It might not integrate into your workflow.

FWIW, I can't figure out how to integrate vim into my workflow, since the text editing controls are different than they are in the rest of my OS.

Can I ask what you'd be looking for out of a new editor that Vim doesn't already do for you? Hard to see the point of this comment.

Not suck at plugin management

https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim

Yeah, I know about Vundle. Vundle is hot garbage.

Have you tried Vim 8? One of the major updates is plugin package management. Can't say much about it, haven't upgraded yet, but the write up on it looks promising.

Have you tried Vim 8?

Have you? Or did you read the placeholder document for a version of vim that isn't anywhere near ready for general release? Because if you know where a branch or a build of vim 8 is, I'd appreciate a pointer.

No, as mentioned above I haven't. And yes I read the announcement on HN a few days ago. Again, I haven't tried it, just going off of Bram's comments regarding new features.

Sorry if I sounded like I was endorsing it. Did you not read my comment?

Can't say much about it, haven't upgraded yet, but the write up on it looks promising.

> Still no CLI mode for editing text

Normally I'd be the first jumping on Microsoft products and criticize them but this is a strange statement. Most of what you can find in VSCode runs on nodejs so if you want a specific features in a CLI you don't need VSCode, just install whatever nodejs lib you need and use it from the CLI.

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