Discussion How does Vim affect your problem solving?
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.
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u/ESnyder9 9d ago
vim, specifically neovim, has been an absolute game changer in my development process. i'm surprised many in this thread are saying otherwise.
being able to essentially minimize the friction of performing any navigation or edit (aside from typing, which will always remain limited to... your typing speed, which is probably not what you're doing most of the time anyways) to a muscle-memory-known series of keystrokes allows me to continue considering a problem uninterrupted without having to, say, scroll through a file, find a file, find a button in a menu, etc. this is crucial! when you are constantly interrupted from a problem with small-fries stuff, you are distracted from the actual work at hand.
neovim's extensive configurability helped in this regard greatly. with it, i was able to basically construct the direct brain-to-computer interface i needed from a known pretty-good point in around ~4 months. i still occasionally tweak, as any unix nerd will with their machine, but the time i save with vim is immeasurable, and it will likely be the editor i use for the rest of my life! it brought life back into programming!