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May 10, 2020
In my quest to continue learning and doing more work in the terminal, Vim has been the one program that I've yet to master. I can do some very basic things in Vim and quitting is certainly one of those things! It's such a meme about not knowing how to quit the editor.
But after a lifetime of GUI apps for document editing making the change to Vim is a little difficult for me. Admittedly, I haven't put a lot of effort into yet even after all this time, since last summer really I haven't gotten into the practice of trying real hard yet.
However, I am now attempting to make a concerted effort into learning Vim more now. I have been using XFCE4-mousepad which is a very simple text editor and I like it a lot. But it is still a GUI app afterall. Since I started a Gopher hole and have learned that line length matters as a standard to follow, I found that setting a line-length visual cue in Mousepad helps in knowing when to move to the next line. I figured there had to be a way in Vim to do a similar thing. After watching many various videos on Linux related stuff where Vim is used, I know that it is a very powerful and extensible text editor.
I finally figured out, or rather took the time to search it out, how to set a visual cue in Vim to let me know when I am getting to the end of the line for Gopher. I set that up in the config file for NeoVim which is what I am using in place of Vim.
Additionally, I am also learning how to use the spell check function of NeoVim. I guess it doesn't do grammar but that's ok.
The other aspect of my journey to forcing myself to learn Vim is LaTex. Now I understand there are several ways to use LaTex which include GUI applications on Windows and macOS, even a web version exists and the old school way of using a terminal and Vim.
Of course I have chosen to use the terminal and Vim to learn LaTex. That fits my goal of trying to do as much stuff in the terminal as I can.
I do like and enjoy LibreOffice and I think it is a great suite of programs that everyone should use, especially to get away from the proprietary programs from Microsoft and Google. But I want to take my document editing to another level which is LaTex and Vim.
As such, this phlog post was made in Vim.
I'm also trying to live more in Ranger which is a terminal-based file manager. I also use pcmanfm which is a GUI file manager and it's a great program as well. But again, I'm trying to learn to live in the terminal and keep my hands on the keyboard more and off the mouse as much as I can.