I might be a bit biased but vim keybinds are honestly the best way to edit text. It’s come to the point where I started looking for a way to add them to google docs(editing documents for school would be a breeze then). I know a friend who doesn’t want to take the time to learn those keybinds.
”In the time I learn vim keybinds, I could have finished so much work for a project” - The Friend
I always found this as an annoying arguement. I mean I might spend too much time making my neovim config look nice but I feel like learning vim keybinds is not that huge of a time investment. After all, I learned them incrementally as I was working on my projects. After you learn them, you’re able to edit text at lightspeed.
I also told him that neovim is so much faster than the bloated vscode. After all, imagine running an entire chromium instance(electron 💩) rather than just a binary that loads a couple of lua files. He said the only reason that matters is because my computer sucks(might be true but neovim will always still be faster even on the best machines).
I think at the end of the day, it’s just him being too lazy to give neovim a shot. He won’t even try the vim keybinds for vscode. But anyways, here are the reasons you should use neovim.
FYI
If you aren’t aware by the way here is the difference between vim and neovim:
- Vim is a program
- Vim keybinds are the style of editing in vim and this is not editor specific(it can even be done in other editors)
- Neovim is a fork of vim which makes it easier to customize and add plugins
I’m trying to convince people to at least try vim keybinds and then mayeb swap over to neovim. In my opinion there isn’t really a reason to go for the original vim program. When I refer to vim from now on, I mean the keybinds.
Editing Speed
Vim lets you edit fast. With vim, the need to even use the mouse is almost completely eliminated. For example, need to move to the next character and delete it? lx should get you where you need. Do you want to exit a file and not save? :q! should do that fast. This is just scratching the surface and there are many more keybinds that allow you to quickly do almost anything within the editor. Not to mention that almost all of this is customizable one way or the other.
Bragging rights
As a vim user, you should never resist the urge to brag to others.
”Half the reason to even use vim is to brag to others” - A very wise man
Imagine getting to send a screenshot of your setup to others. Nothing screams chad quite like a nice setup 🗿.
Conclusion?
Whether you decide to use vim or not, it’s important that you keep these points in mind. I highly recommend that you at lesat give it a shot and see if you like it or not.