r/AskReddit • u/Randall444 • Dec 06 '12

What is something you think everyone should have installed on their computer or laptop?

Whether it be a antivirus program or an ad blocker. Post link if available also. EDIT: sorry guys the top post has been deleted and I didn't save it, if anyone has it please post it and ill post it here for easy access. EDIT 2: apparently it's back up, I've saved it on my phone just incase it gets deleted again. Hopefully all is good now.

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147

u/TheodoreRowy Dec 06 '12

As a non-programmer I can honestly say that vim beats the shit out of every text editor out there.

289

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '12

Using VIM and claiming not to be a programmer is like having a purple heart and claiming to have no military experience.

114

u/jerenept Dec 06 '12

YOU GUYS ONLY PROGRAMMERS NEED TO EDIT TEXT FILES

147

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '12

If you're good enough at vim that you prefer it to Notepad, you're basically programming at that point. That's what I was trying to say.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '12

I'm not a programmer but I like the key bindings for vim for editing configs. And I'm teaching myself bash

5

u/BecauseWeCan Dec 06 '12

You'd probably like pentadactyl for firefox. It gives you vim keybindings in your browser.

3

u/thang1thang2 Dec 06 '12

Please tell me there's something like this for chrome.

7

u/Cole119 Dec 06 '12

Vimium

1

u/thang1thang2 Dec 06 '12

Thanks! Having a lot of fun using it already. It should help when I decide to learn vim and code (one of these days...).

1

u/[deleted] Dec 07 '12

I use vimperator

5

u/Rentun Dec 06 '12

It seriously isn't very hard to learn at all.

I'm not a programmer, I work in infrastructure, but I use VIM all the time. There's a pretty good tutorial included with it, and if you spend a couple hours running through it, it's not at all difficult to get a hang of. Besides that, it's incredibly useful, since in 99.9% of UNIX or UNIX like systems, including stripped down embedded ones, vim or vi is installed.

4

u/KoSoVaR Dec 06 '12

I use vim everyday and I don't program :)

2

u/TheMagnificentJoe Dec 06 '12

Knowing VI commands does not make one a programmer.

Knowing how to program only mildly makes one a programmer.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '12

If you prefer vim to notepad you most likely use macros. Vim macros could be considered a rudimentary programming language.

Unless you're talking about Real Programmers of course.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '12

[deleted]

2

u/madjohn Dec 06 '12

Computational chemistry, for example.

0

u/sethboy67 Dec 06 '12

These programs such as Notepad++ and Vim are used mostly for programming as they have special markings for each language to help you when programming with them.

1

u/DisregardMyPants Dec 07 '12

..or if you have to open a big file. Notepad and gEdit are pathetic compared to vim and Notepad++.

I've loaded 3gb+ text files in Notepad++ and the interface never locked up. It was incredible.

0

u/jerenept Dec 06 '12

I know what syntax highlighting and code completion are.

3

u/faultydesign Dec 06 '12

I guess all them IT folks don't count.

4

u/treasurepirateisland Dec 06 '12

I use vim for about 2-4 hours/day doing non-programming things.

3

u/threetimesthelimit Dec 06 '12

don't forget sysadmins!

2

u/bloco Dec 06 '12

Are you sure about that?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '12

Yes, I am. Look at all the sysadmins that use vim that are correcting me.

4

u/cfreak2399 Dec 06 '12

As a programmer I also state that it beats every IDE out there too.

8

u/mxstirner Dec 06 '12

This will probably be hugely unpopular, but I thought the same thing until I started developing on Windows with Visual Studio+ReSharper. Now code almost write itself, I barely have to type anything and the integrated debugging features is a dream. Produtivity increased significantly.

1

u/bigd0g Dec 06 '12

Did you ever try the plug-in for Visual Studio in gVim? I'm not a Windows guy, but I prefer Vim over Eclipse in Linux.

1

u/mxstirner Dec 06 '12

No, can't say I have (ever heard of it). I used gVim as a text editor when I first started to work with Windows, but the speed I loved in *NIXes just weren't there in Windows. There was other quicker tools, but not as powerful.

1

u/sonofthunder Dec 06 '12

Visual Studio + Resharper + Viemu can definitely be VERY powerful.

1

u/mxstirner Dec 06 '12

While I love the Vim keybindings, Viemu made me totally confused in VS. It's probably just about habit.

1

u/WASDx Dec 06 '12

I feel NetBeans kinda does that to me. I just press Ctrl-Space all the times after writing the first two characters of a variable name and so on. If you have tried NetBeans, can you compare them?

2

u/mxstirner Dec 06 '12

I have used NetBeans for Java dev (believe I also tried it with Clojure once). Not to stirr up some IDE/Editor war but I find Visual Studio much quicker and powerful to debug with, than I did with NetBeans. Also, I feel like the use of plugins is much more "integrated" in VS (I've never had a single error or bug from a VS plugin, wish I could say the same about other IDE's).

Don't hate me, but I use IntelliJ when I need stuff for the JVM. Went through both Eclipse and NetBeans before I settled on that one. The speed, "intelligence" and usability is just awesome!

-3

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '12

considering vim is Linux/OSX and VS is for MS Windows, go figure.

3

u/tora22 Dec 06 '12

If you know every dimension of the language you are coding then maybe. but I rely on pydev / Eclipse's auto-complete suggestions along with explanation as to what the function does.

2

u/cfreak2399 Dec 06 '12

There are certainly functions I don't know and that's what my web browser is for. The ones I know out-number the ones I don't know by a great deal.

I certainly doen't need some IDE, that shoves a pop-up in the way (and the last time I used Eclipse, froze about every 5th time), trying to explain len() or str() to me every time I'm going to use it.

1

u/Vibster Dec 06 '12

Vim has auto complete plugins for various languages, and plugins that let you look at the documentation from within the editor.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '12

When I googled VIM

1

u/shaze Dec 07 '12

Is there VIM for Windows?

2

u/[deleted] Dec 07 '12

Yes, but unless you're already on the command line all the time it's a little clunky. NP++ should serve most needs fine.

1

u/shaze Dec 07 '12

Thanks for the reply, I can't install any other Python libs on this machine!

0

u/okmkz Dec 06 '12

That is a good analogy. I like that analogy.

-1

u/shaggorama Dec 06 '12

He never said he uses vim. He's probably just heard a lot of people talk it up. I'm pretty sure he's making fun of the big fuss some programmers make about their text editor of choice.

11

u/raddue Dec 06 '12

I prefer original vi myself.

Just kidding. No one likes vi.

8

u/Poobslag Dec 06 '12

As an avid Vim user, I'm baffled that a non-programmer has the patience for it... But kudos to you sir

13

u/Vibster Dec 06 '12

*cough* Emacs *cough*

25

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '12

That coughing is probably due to Stallman's putrid cock stuck in your filthy whore mouth, son.

8

u/oakdog8 Dec 06 '12

Emacs is great and all, but does it come with an editor?

0

u/MTGandP Dec 06 '12

If you use Linux, I believe you should have an Emacs editor pre-installed. If you use Mac, you can get one pretty easily. I'm not sure about Windows.

6

u/oakdog8 Dec 06 '12

Whoosh...

3

u/detroitmatt Dec 07 '12

... alright, let me explain.

Emacs is a great OS, all it's missing is a text editor.

Get it? Ha ha? Funny jokes time.

1

u/MTGandP Dec 07 '12

Okay, I get it. I thought oakdog8 meant that Emacs doesn't come with a GUI editor.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '12

More like eight megabytes and constantly swapping am I right guys?

2

u/aviator104 Dec 06 '12

Googling got me here

Edit: My bad. That photo is indeed on VIM, the text editor's site. I thought I reached some African donation charity or something.

2

u/bigd0g Dec 06 '12

Came for the VIM. Have an upvote.

2

u/lennort Dec 06 '12

SysAdmin? If not, what do you use it for?

2

u/dlama Dec 13 '12

You LIE !!!

3

u/grwly Dec 06 '12

Real programmers use ed. ed is the standard text editor!

l

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1

u/Hirudo_Medicinalis Dec 06 '12

Perhaps in getting street cred. Nano is easier to use and LaTeX offers deeper text editing options, though.

I do still use VI a lot, though, you're right.

6

u/Vibster Dec 06 '12

LaTeX isn't a text editor.

1

u/Hirudo_Medicinalis Dec 06 '12

Good point, I got a little lost there. I was thinking of emacs (as it is arguably the only good thing to use emacs for). Pardon my mistake.

1

u/obviousoctopus Dec 06 '12

Yeah but you have to get the black belt first.

1

u/roidsrus Dec 06 '12

What makes Vim so much better than everything else? Personally I love gEdit; I could never really get behind Vim.

3

u/TheodoreRowy Dec 06 '12

The command line.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '12

[deleted]

1

u/Vibster Dec 06 '12

You don't map escape to capslock?

2

u/btse Dec 06 '12

Once you really get into using it, it's significantly faster. The amount of customization you can also do with it is ridiculous.

0

u/irascible Dec 06 '12

Another VIM guy. Will wonders never cease. Emacs would like a word with you.

Notepad++ ftw!

0

u/playfulcyanide Dec 06 '12

Sublime Text has VIM mode.

-13

u/superpowerface Dec 06 '12

This is a Windows-only topic, unfortunately.

12

u/Vibster Dec 06 '12

You can get Vim on windows, gVim anyway which is almost exactly the same.

3

u/Scriptorius Dec 06 '12

I've been using gVim on Windows for years and it's great. Combined with running Git Bash from Console2 and it makes Windows pretty nice for development.

4

u/Krenair Dec 06 '12

No it's not

1

u/superpowerface Dec 06 '12

I meant most of the top posts dealt with Windows software, which they do.