Vim for a better developer?
I bet being able to do everything fast, and efficiently and using shortcuts, …lots of shortcuts is one of the attributes of a great developer. Using the mouse for interacting with your IDE is cumbersome and inefficient, isn’t it?
So, if you haven’t heard or know about VIM? I want to introduce it to you and let you know how using VIM can make you a better developer. Believe me, at first, it might feel nonsensical but once you get hang of it. Life won’t be the same afterward.
VIM?
You must have seen VIM in CLI in different systems. If you are like me, you must have struggled to get out of VIM the first time. I literally had to google the solutions to exit from VIM.
So, Vim is a popular text editor that has been around since 1991. Despite being over 30 years old, Vim is still widely used by software developers around the world. In this article, let’s explore some of the reasons why we should learn Vim.
- Speed
Vim has very powerful keyboard shortcuts. So does VS code and others! No, VIM is powerful because of keyboard shortcuts and these shortcuts are better than the IDEs shortcut. These default configured shortcuts are so powerful that you don’t have to lift your palm from the keyboard. This is made possible by the mode switch feature available in VIM. These micro-interactions save you a lot of time!
2. Ergonomics
We as a developer will be spending lots of time on our devices. So, our device must be ergonomic so does the tools we use. VIM increases ergonomics by providing shortcuts that are designed so perfectly that you barely have to use the mouse or the keys that are far from the palm of your keyboard.
E.g. What would you do in your CLI if you have to go 3 lines down your code? Use your arrow keys. I would just press 3 J key! Isn’t it awesome? The key placements are just perfect
Conclusion
I am not telling you to dump your IDE and use the default VIM as a tool. I am weighing the pros and cons of replacing VS code with full-fledged NeoVIM for development.
But what you should do is, install VIM plugins in your IDE. It would help to get the best of two worlds. Your IDE features and power of VIM shortcuts.
I have been using the VIM plugin and VIM is here to stay.
INFO: NeoVIM which is an open-source and community-driven version of VIM is the most loved IDE ranking 1st in 2022.
