Hacker News Reader

Actually it takes more like 2 months for the Stockholm Syndrome of vim to sink in and then you don't want to use anything else ever again.

View on HN

And that's not a bad thing. I don't think it's right to call Vim intuitive unless you're used to reading a book to understand 35% of the features of an editor.

But Vim isn't about being intuitive, it's about being efficient. Once it 'clicks' you will be able to express incredibly complex text manipulations in only a few keystrokes. And with configuration you'll build the most powerful but comfortable environment that you'll miss anywhere else.

In other words, Vim is a professional tool, not a toy for causal user. It offsets steeper learning curve for much more powerful and efficient way of editing text. It's a feature.

That said, it would benefit A LOT from having a more discoverable interface. See what kakoune is doing in that space: http://kakoune.org/

When it comes to discoverability, I really like what Spacemacs is doing with its continuous suggestions UI.

Yeah vim isn't intuitive to beginners, but "intuitive" to people that have the context of knowing how the parts fit together.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com