The Great Vim / Textmate Debate: Opinion #56 - How to make Vim more accessible

Yes, because as we know these hackers have empty .vimrc files. No sirree, just the defaults thanks!

I wouldn't call myself a Rubyist (I like Scala more), but I'd prefer the hipster tag to loser ;)

I actually don't think depending on bundles and snippet features is bad at all. I think that indicates the flexibility of TextMate from first boot, and it means users are getting to the power the editor is providing, rather than skimming across the top. But when I watch a Vim pro though, it's light years faster than how quickly I can move around. As the other commenter mentioned, they do have highly customized .vimrc's and such to get to that place though.

I need like a vim tip a day or something to show me more of these tricks.

Automatically in insert mode is what I expected to be the most divisive comment, and it proved so! Maybe this would be solved by my distribution suggestion: new users get Vim in insert mode, seasoned vets get Vim in normal mode on start-up. There isn't one setting that will please everyone, although I do have a suspicion that the normal mode at start-up turns off more people than might be expected.

For the comment command deal, I found similar blog posts along that line. Again, I think it's the sort of command that isn't obvious to new users, and you need to be jiving with the Tao of Vim before it makes sense (I only have a half handle on it myself). I just wanted a keyboard command, like Textmate's Cmd+/ . NERD Commenter's key command is ,/, which makes me happy, and it works across multiple file types. My hope is that when I get better at Vim, I'll be able to come up with such commands myself, but I don't expect that sort of proficiency for months, if not years. I'm perhaps a slow learner ;)

tpugin (on demand path manipulation): http://github.com/tomtom/vimtlib/blob/master/macros/tplugin....

scriptmanager: http://github.com/MarcWeber/vim-addon-manager

So pick an editor (or set of editors) that fits, is comfortable, and lets you walk, run, jog, and sprint.

Is there a really good reason to choose Python over Ruby? Usually not, but some people do take a lot of time thinking about such things :)

I personally find the ecosystem of software development interesting, I enjoy debates about minuscule language features or text editors or design patterns. I am not really sure why; maybe I think it exposes the variety of the discipline, and I think it might make you a more well-rounded programmer if you take in that wider view. It's hard to put my finger on and verbalize.

The nicer cue didn't make me a better player in any direct sense. However, it was (and is) a joy to handle. It has obvious craftsmanship: the weight and balance is just so; it swings easily in my hands. I look forward to using it, and I care for it very well. So, indirectly, it probably contributed to the improvement of my game.

tl;dr A well-made tool can bring its own reward. Tools you want to work with and care for encourage good habits and practice. These things are not nothing. Programming is not merely a mental activity of juggling abstractions.

And even if it doesn't, the increased happiness is a virtue unto itself. The point is, find the tools that make you happy and use them. They don't have to be the same ones other people are using.

That said, I am a ruby developer on OS X, and I have been using TextMate as my primary editor even though I cut my teeth on basic vi usage 15 years ago. The fact that TextMate 2 is suffering serious second-system syndrome is undoubtedly a big part of why Vim is getting so much mindshare.

TextMate is an amazing editor, and in my (limited) experience, certainly one of the few in the last 2 decades to even attempt to challenge emacs/vim on their own turf (ie. lightweight powerful editors). But ultimately I think a one-developer closed source model will never be able to create a third truly great editor.

The main factors driving me towards vim are maturity and general editing optimality.

Maturity because vim has been around and is open source, so millions of wrinkles have been ironed out: very few crashing bugs, good performance on large files, handles edge cases well and has settings for probably anything you'd ever need, etc.

Optimality because vi attempts to allow editing with the fewest number of keystrokes. Becoming fluent in vi means that for any type of text editing you can make any desired change in a near optimal number of keystrokes. It's a pretty safe bet that no one will ever come up with a more optimal editor for such a wide range of tasks. Sure IDEs have a high local maxima, but they fall off quickly as you jump to files that fall outside known semantics. TextMate gives you a middle ground for writing quick snippets and commands, but I'm starting to question the long term value of that versus the benefits of universal availability and just taking some time to find good plugins for various language-specific development.