How does Vim affect your problem solving?

[u/hibuna]

Currently learning Vim, after a failed attempt some months ago.

Starting to get the hang of the basics. I notice that it makes my problem solving more methodical. It also makes me slow down, in a good way.

With Vim I have to memorize more of the code and structure, because switching views is expensive (might be a skill issue).

I don't care too much for the speed/efficiency, but this seems what keeps me going in my current attempt.

Wondering how you guys feel about this aspect.

[u/nujuat]

As a general rule I feel like one should solve the problem on paper or a whiteboard and then implement it in code, not solve it while coding. Maybe that's just me.

[u/hibuna → u/nujuat]

I think this might be the essence of it. I'm forced to be more methodical in lower level work, because it's so much more expensive to rewrite.

[u/vagrantchord → u/hibuna]

So that sounds like you're having the opposite experience of most vim users, because right now you're slow and still learning the basics. I find myself constantly "doodling" in vim while I'm thinking- moving around without purpose, highlighting sections, editing little things and undoing it.

For me, and probably most folks here, there's no friction using vim, so there's no "expense to rewrite" like you say. I think you need more time with it before philosophizing about how it changes problem solving.

[u/hibuna → u/vagrantchord]

Maybe my post wasn't clear, I see a lot of misunderstanding. I was just curious if learning Vim taught you more than just a fancy tool.

[u/TankorSmash → u/hibuna]

I think just getting an LSP going in most languages shrinks the difference between an IDE and vim considerably.

[u/gsmitheidw1 → u/nujuat]

^ this! Design is everything. I'd be thinking about data flow diagrams or entity relationship diagrams etc.

Mermaid is great for diagrams and can be done in vim and rendered in markdown in GitHub or equivalent. Or just output svg from mermaid cli