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Why use vim?

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date: 2020-09-14 20:45:14

categories: vim

firstPublishDate: 2020-09-14 20:45:14

Vim is a great text editor:

it has lots of features
it is extensible with plugins
it is stable, the interface doesn't change much
it runs in terminals, it is easy to work on multiple machine and have multiple sessions. It is very convenient when combined with tmux or screen. This blog post is written on a planet computer gemini pda with ssh, tmux and vim.
it is available on all platforms, the same configuration can be used on all platforms (linux, macOS, windows)
it works on all machines slow and fast: raspberry pi or old pc to x86_64 servers
it is lightweight and starts instantly.

I started using vim in 1997 occasionally, I knew enough functions to edit and save text file. A few years later, I decided to learn more about vim and I read the manual in pdf form. Since then I exclusively use vim. I have configuration files that have evolved over time and fit very well my workflow. Setting up new machines is easy, I only need to copy my .vimrc to get my configuration. All my machines have the same vim configuration. The time it takes to learn vim is well worth it and rewarding, I think vim will be available for many years in the future. It is really an handicap to not be able to connect to a machine with ssh and not be able to use vim to edit files quickly.

hashtags: #vim

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