Bogdan Gusiev's blog

How to make good software for people


Vim as IDE - new development era for me
01 Dec 2009

I was using Vim to do the minor editing in config files for ages. Vim is advanced on basic navigation and editing operations. However I was always prefer IDE for programming because of it's specific to language navigation('go to definition' feature is awesome!), integrated debugger. But while gaining the experience I noticed that all advanced features began to be less important then basic ones. And you should try Vim if you feel the same.

The basic concept of vim is that: Vim think in the same way as you do. For example: I want to delete 'd' everything inside 'i' brackets ')' and vim understands my command: di)
You shouldn't type a dozen of button to move cursor around and finally delete the selected fragment. It's hard to adapt because people are use to think in the way that there text editor do. Vim does vice versa. Some people are saying that they don't like vim because it make them think a lot. That's wrong! Vim is trying to make you free from thinking about editing and concentrate on the content.
General editing in Vim considered up to every small details. Ask yourself if there is some usual task that I am doing inefficiently and search the Vim feature to optimize that in 3-5 keys. And in ninety nine percent of cases you will find it as built in vim command or a plugin.

vim performance