overcoming Vim phobia uh when I learned
Vim I actually had Vim fomo I had such
phobia or fomo of missing out on vim and
mine was right around 2012 when I
started learning Vim anyways heha here
we go I've been coding for almost a
decade now and for anyone who spends
two-thirds of his day doing uh doing so
his tool chains matters let's go for a
walk down memory lane this article is
going to be different disclaimer today's
content is going to be subjective okay I
like I like subjective content I was
dabbling in notepad Plus+ I actually did
try to notepad++ for well over 10
minutes and then realized ain't no way
I'm going to be using notepad++ to learn
Java development as a young clueless
potato in my school they forced us to
use blue jay blue jay to learn Java uh
at that moment I didn't even understand
what an editor was to me it seemed like
notepad with extra buttons yep Fair okay
this is completely Fair the focus was on
learning program not DX developer
experience the only intriguing thing I
uh was that I could run code using a
plugin by pressing one of the function
keys it uh it gave me a big advantage
over writing and notepad and running
Windows command prompt absolutely did
someone just say they make their living
using notepad++ I made a living with
notepad Plus+ for almost two years that
is insane you are crazy you are crazy
key points it's good to have a place uh
to write and execute code together okay
fair two years later Eclipse oh oh oh
the the poor
man why would you want to do this I
could decently code in a couple
languages now one of uh one of the books
I was reading recom the next shiny thing
eclipse eclipse had hit quite the right
spot for the first time the tool chain
was becoming addictive the joy of coding
building and running those Java Swing
apps without diving into the build and
execution system was simply M yeah I do
agree there was something very beautiful
about having everything just build with
net beans the superior Java experience
net beans okay net beans the internet
was not big so I often would go through
offline docs and figure out figure my
way out out I got let's see it got
tedious at times but there wasn't
another way out uh for the first time I
wondered oh why this software didn't
behave like the previous one uh no I
didn't know the word IDE yet I only knew
that Java runs on three billion devices
it had to be good and I had to be good
at it this is a fair take hate is a
strong word I hate Java also fair type
one in the chat if you have never
programmed Java and you hate Java wow
all right all right all right all right
key points it's better if your software
can handle the configuration work for
you it's even better if the software if
your software can tell you what to write
next fair uh meeting Linux in VI Linux I
also run a pizza a piece of bread from
last week wait run I also run on a piece
of bread from last week fair windows
your CPU is not of the latest generation
please click here to find out more
information this is pretty good this is
pretty good pretty good meme right there
I got this new blue laptop the sticker
says Ubuntu it do you guys say Ubuntu or
Ubuntu I like to say uu see me
personally I'm kind of on a I'm kind of
on a different train a little bit I
don't know if you guys know this but I'm
more of the uh I'm more of a fan of the
o1 two o o anyways uh I'm not sure where
that was going let's see let's see what
the heck is this thing where is my DVD
with pirated Windows an activation key
written on the back of it I went to
school library and boy that book on Unix
gave me Tremors of Joy I decided to
shift to Linux Perman
I never uh and I've never touched
Windows ever since based based based
based based uh same here same thing
happened here it's pronounced as Arch
it's Arch I couldn't understand why
weirdos on the internet always suggested
editing random config files using
something called
VI uh who on God's uh Green Earth would
open up the terminal navigate to a file
enter into this creepy uh VI thing where
one can't even quit this was literally
my mentality 2010 this was my mental
2010 I kid you not I use Vim full time
now this was my mentality completely
isn't it funny how that
works uh sadly it was part of the
college curriculum and I had to write in
it the good thing is is that after you
press I VI becomes normal I hated it so
bad that I wrote a g at a config so my
professor thought I was coding in the
terminal what a great Professor let's go
Professor let's go great professor
uh something about writing a g config
edit or G config just to do that also
great teaching you to get around it I
can appreciate that key points never
push for a product SL outcome you may
push for an idea and see if people
resonate with it every developer should
use Linux no exceptions personal take I
also consider Mac OS a Linux drro I'm
just waiting for chat I'm just waiting
for
Chad chat is in shambles what the hell
is this oh man uh all right right
Sublime art of coding oh if you hit uh
let's see hits s twice Sublime Text I'm
once again asking you for
forel you know what the best part about
this this meme is is that it actually
puts programmer humor right here and you
know for a fact that programmer humor
Steals and does not ever give the
original Source Credit ever shy Ryan can
tell you all about it guy you want to
tell you want to you want to tell them
all about it there's a picture of me on
on programmer humor and they don't even
know who I am now things were taken
shape I have decided my career path as a
web developer I often build small
utility apps again the book was uh I was
referring to told me that Sublime is the
next shiny thing oh Hoy I was on Bo
board there's something about it that
feels close to my heart it was Json
configuration I spent the whole week uh
tweaking things in the settings file it
was near magical experience of to copy a
Jon file on a USB drive and make my
friend's machine like mine lowkey dot
files fair fair I mean I like that
experience it's a good experience it's a
good experience that you can have what
you want and you can save it to a USB
and just make something else
yours I mean we call get now these days
but I guess you could say it also at
that point my Sublime started to look
like a different application to regular
Sublime users to this day I am a
hardcore ricing fan a fancy term for
customizing your software and yes I'm
immune to that popup asking me to buy
Sublime just like good old WinRAR there
was somebody in twitch chat whose name
was I actually bought
WinRAR it was it was one of the best it
was one of the best ones ever all right
the rise of vs code when people ask me
to recommend a text editor Visual Studio
code absolutely everyone got on board on
this I spent about I spent about
probably three to six months trying to
make Visual Studio code work for
me key points missed oh I missed the the
key points okay okay Sublime was fast
for that kind for for the kind of things
it can do absolutely it's still really
fast if Sublime was one of the best
editors ever for opening up large files
it was really good uh the only reason it
failed was due to vs code similar pitch
corporate backing and excellent
Community Support developers moved to
VSS code and no uh and no one develops
uh tooling around software they
personally don't use Vim is nowhere
close to sublime's power the almighty
gue but the community stuck to it and it
became awesome over time
I I mean I don't know about that last
sentence but whatever key Point number
two maybe I disagree with Prime and
shambles I'm in
shambles let's see I felt like I was
getting a uh getting ancient and even
started working professionally Sublime
Text was like the back of my hand now
every key binding and config option
lived in my mind not to mention the
plethora of extensions well customized
for my work flow flow at that point
losing my Sublime config folder was more
of a worry than the laptop itself just
kidding I knew I knew get by
then and yet and yet Mr never use
windows again still calling them
folders absolutely shame just a shame to
see just a shame to
see uh that's actually my my favorite
Linux neck beard shaming is uh actually
it's directory windows are folders okay
the office was asking to work in vs code
so again there was no option spent a
month tweaking it in the end I wondered
what a Frankenstein's monster I had made
it looked like Sublime it responded like
Sublime married to vs code and started
heavy like uh my old friend's
eclipse the worst part was that uh the
senior guy scolded me every time he
tried debugging on my machine using
hacker problems no big deal usual hacker
problems no big deal oh my goodness one
thing I fell in love about vs code was
uh is its zero config extension
ecosystem and it overall felt smart
under the hood while coding I could feel
that it had something uh that Sublime
lacked to this day vs code has been my
favorite coding software if something
can be coded it will eventually be in
VSS code I feel like uh I I feel it is
the modern version of emac what emac is
an operating
system okay what what is he talking
about I felt the difference between
strict and dynamic type languages
firsthand I worked on Ruby on Rails
those days and dynamically typed
languages are a nightmare for any editor
don't tell dhh sh shoot me but I hate
Ruby sh stop it dhh could hear us at any
moment python JavaScript Etc even though
I coded them daily for one reason uh
maybe for that one reason I knock on the
doors of jet brains from time to time
Fair key points vs code had a vision of
being an omnipresent editor and the
community made it made it happen I know
the community the really the community
has the biggest bamboozling that's the
best part is that Microsoft got the
community to do so much heavy lifting
for them its core is rigid and well
thought out on top of which people make
what they want it's a ble let's see its
blessings proves to be its curse since
anybody can easily write anything people
write them without much thought and
later blame vs code for being
slow well I mean it's also written in
JavaScript so there's only so much it
can do you know to be fair JavaScript is
like single execution it's not like you
can it's not like it can just magically
become multi-threaded uh oops I have a
bit of perfection
problem it happens this happens it's
literally a
browser it's literally a browser what's
this OCD looking thing uh you ask it's a
condition where you are a bit too strict
about how things should be you may say
wow that's a good thing but then if your
table's edges don't match your laptops
and you get a shiver of anxiety that's
dude I used to I swear I used to be so
so bad that I would even organize my
shirts by like
Colors by type I would organize
everything so much and I remember one
day I was sitting there organizing
everything and I just thought what am I
doing with my life and it
completely disappeared like it just it
just disappeared from my life from that
moment I just realized I will never be
so concerned about things again like
that like I can't I I emotionally cannot
handle the amount of time I spend
organizing the
most meaningless
things and then it just went away it
just went away I even still remember
exactly where I was I was in the John
the Johnston uh dormitories in Boseman
Montana it was awful I remember just
like spending an entire day just
organizing the stupidest and then I
just realized I can never do this
again I can never do this again I now
buy the same
socks right the same socks every single
time no this was long after my meth days
uh I buy the exact same pair of socks I
do not fold socks I buy the same set of
shirts I have three or four shirts
that's it they're all the same shirt and
I buy black hoodies and I just don't
think about crap anymore you know how
annoying it is to just just spend your
life doing that also I get distracted
fast so I need to F uh focused
environment I left this article to get
the above image and now I'm back after
reading about the movie This meme came
from okay cool we're on the same page
now see we aren't much different after
all that's pretty good statement I like
both environments outside and inside the
laptop to be ultra minimal check out the
screenshot at the bottom of the page uh
the there aren't even clo uh close icons
on the application Windows if possible
from letter spacing and fonts to the
inner padding of a popup everything is a
trigger to be honest it makes me happy
to do this kind of stuff and if you
search for Unix racing you'll get blown
away on the other hand literally on the
other hand I started getting wrist pain
due to the constant jumping from letters
and arrows grinding 80 hours a week
comes with its own perks yeah this is
one of the
reasons I switched to vorac I was
Googling about wrist pain conditions and
funnily enough one of the tips was using
Vim mode on your computer that sneaky VI
I couldn't even understand was the same
thing until I opened it I had some rual
residual hate towards it
let's go for for the for Server work I
was using Nano later I moved to micro
which was closer to vs code bindings
every stunt it takes to avoid my arch
nemesis VI I realized that or stint did
I say stunt is it supposed to be stint
uh that literally every tool uh I use
has a weird Sublime and vs code hybrid
key bindings gosh I hate myself I can't
even use another person's computer
running pure version of that software to
support the no terminal mindset set over
the years I forgot all my appreciation
for a said GP Etc things needed to
change I couldn't live in this
denial this is a great moment this is a
great moment right
here I love where this is slowly coming
to you realize that like it's one thing
that I really like is that I can log on
to any server and be fairly efficient
with Vim right you just give me Vim long
as I can uh long as I can do Global
marks I'm I'm starting to hop around
pretty fast on on on projects I don't
really use that often you know or on
servers I never use and it's just all a
sudden you know you start hopping around
love it it's good it's a great
experience once you know what you're
doing it's a great experience even when
you're not good at it right uh do you
enjoy let's see do what you enjoy not
necessarily keeps you abstracted from
real problems Fair everybody spends time
in in denial it's normal as long as you
are ready to come out of it after
realization learn core G Linux tools
this is the best piece of advice in this
entire article right here you'll
understand the benefit in the long uh
term for example I have been much uh
better at Rex okay bad example if I just
continued using GP and said okay bad
example don't no this is not why you do
it stop it stop it
um but real talk the amount of benefit
you'll get from just learning these
stupid things I cannot tell you how many
times I've seen somebody write something
to walk a file tree guess who also wrote
something in an interview
to write or to walk a file tree for a
pattern and I did it in
Java I did it in
Java Vim has search scroll plugins like
Easy Motion Vim sneak to navigate buffer
you should use them Vim
go I was I I resolved to use Vim not
because it's any better for my specific
workflow but because I wanted to break
my dependency on vs code I knew I
couldn't drop into Vim for my day job so
I settled on the middle ground of using
Vim bindings in vs code courtesy of a
YouTuber called Ben
Awad Ben does
love does love the vs code Vim
bindings uh who showed this peaceful
path of adopting Vim I've always
wondered how he could magically teleport
to random places when I could only move
there really fast uh on the safe let's
see on the safe side I automatically
turn it off in all my office project
folders nothing in Vin particularly
amazed me because I had a similar
shortcuts in mind for vs code yet the
constant tussle between both was getting
hard by the end of the year I could
fluently navigate in VSS code using Vim
bindings after almost a year of usage I
started seeing the ergonomics and
functional benefits key points be
practical you son of a gun learn to walk
before you run Temptations okay that's
actually Fair Temptations to achieve
what others flash uh is a good
motivation
personal willpower won't be enough to
explore Uncharted territories we need
some Rocket Fuel to Kickstart the
process I honestly don't even know what
that
means this is fair this is
fair it
works it
works
you know it's hard to explain to people
why Vim is so good but I feel like every
time someone gets good at a set of key
bindings even if you use the emac one
I've seen someone really good at the
emac one like once I which still blows
me away but he doesn't type properly and
so I think the fact that emac is so
crazy and his inability to type well
worked for him uh but when you see
someone really good at what they use you
understand you know what the power looks
like but until you felt it it's just so
hard to to explain why it's so
good it's so hard to explain why it's so
good it's so hard it's impossible uh I
was darn stupid of me to think that uh
one day I'll uninstall vs code and move
to Vim someday because I could navigate
there similarly similarly I didn't
realize I was using Vim bindings for
doing vs code things the workflow part
was still a miss all that I learned was
a few keyboard shortcuts I moved anyways
one day I had to find and replace a word
in projects I couldn't do it so welcome
back home vs code at this point had
become my identity I couldn't fly
through code blazingly fast blazingly
fast in vs code uh and my friends knew
that uh me for that so I settled back in
leaving Vim I was happy I could do
whatever those Vim nerds could do yet I
was still in a big comfort zone bias my
problem was that I was using VSS code
with hybrid key bindings and now uh
replaced even with something else what
kind of solution was that luckily I got
a break from Office Project work uh
sometime back and I knew this was the
chance to transition my configs I
realized I had no trouble in moving to
from Sublime to vs code it was a happy
process I started working in raw neovim
just Rod dogging it and yeah it was
painful but I had a plan whenever I miss
something I would re I would read neim
docs and add
it TJ I could you just hear TJ TJ right
now is crying oh my goodness this is
straight up this is TJ look at this this
is TJ makes me happy I understand and
never written every single line of my
editor conf fig took me two months and
now I have my own sweet pte personal
development environment let's go te no
te is crying te is happier TJ has never
been happier in his life TJ let's go
reading the docks and everything let's
go this uh covered everything from
default indentation uh size to file tree
to language servers earlier I watched a
YouTube video from the private on Neo
setup it overwhelmed me so badly that I
had to take a week's break from thinking
about my own
let
go let's go I do set up the entire
neovim configuration in like 20 minutes
everything I did get a prime mention but
I would say it was probably a little
negative mention but still we still got
one we still got one acknowledge the
iceberg Theory one gets attracted to
what floats and not uh the work it will
take to create and understand the base
my suggestion if you ask is simple
respect it 30
minutes we got them my biggest
motivation for making the final switch
was a new off Factor surrounding Vim as
a software all you see in the
screenshots below text terminal on the
Windows no images no real buttons no gue
of any kind they aren't even real icons
it's all it's really hard I imagine you
can't even change the font or the size
of it every single thing is carefully
manipulated text on a black terminal
window that respect for the people who
built it keeps me
going all right I think we're hitting
the end here Prime gen making a new Vim
users feel bad I am you're you're
welcome I thought the video was great
okay people loved it like And subscribe
hey like And
subscribe right now press the like And
subscribe button now that I have fully
moved my workflow to newm it doesn't
feel any different I was already using
uh used to the Vim bindings by the way
this is the best way to do it if you're
going to learn Vim learn Vim bindings
first okay learn Vim bindings first it's
totally worth
it it's totally worth it because then
you don't have to fight like you don't
want to learn two things at
once learn one
thing learn one thing just one all right
uh exactly uh the let's see the only
Aesthetics I have change yet the good
part is I understand how these moving
pieces work I understand that the inline
error messages shows from where these
Fancy Auto completions come how each
line gets formatted and much more
looking back I could have peeped into
the source code of vs code or it's
extension but but the mindset was to use
it not to learn it this is a great this
is a fantastic line by the way right
here the mindset of vs code is to use it
not learn it whereas the mindset of
neovim is to learn it then use it it is
just a little bit different it is just a
different type of mindset the biggest
shift uh is that I look at software in
uh General from the mentality of a
builder rather than a consumer now when
I see something I Ponder how to build it
rather than use
it let's go after all I'm an engineer
and my identity revolves around two main
things how well I understand software
and what I can build beautiful look at
look at that Beauty look at that Beauty
look at that beauty you're using cursive
disgusting but whatever I'm not gonna
I'm not I'm only I'm judging I'm judging
I did Judge I judge thoroughly look at
that look at that look at that telescope
let's go telescope let's go telescope
unfortunately I can't through uh go
through every screen in utility but if
you'd like the setup I can write an
article on how everything I did from
scratch okay nice uh
frequently asked questions will using
Vim make me a better developer yes take
that uh I take that
guarantee I
agree I know people hate that but I
actually agree with that no Harpoon
screenshot I know sad it was sad how
hard is the transition pretty easy just
a few hundred key
bindings it is the reason why is that
you have to learn your environment and
learn learning your environment and
learning how things work makes the world
seem like a smaller place and a more
overcomable place and you're able to
learn things in a new way just simply
because you've taken such a hard step
and a lot of people don't take those
hard steps very frequently in their
career and so I think it's very very
good to take those steps and to know
that you should do that right because
language servers there's nothing really
that crazy about it
overcomable all right uh what does it
even matter it's just an editor my go uh
let's see my work goes with what I write
if you want to be an engineer or a
writer uh figure it out fast uh good
that you chose engineer now think again
how many fundamentals of engineering do
you get exposed to uh that your day job
abstracts from you you don't want to be
an engineer with a weak core do you you
don't do some sit-ups sit on a ball it
seems hard to uh to get started will I
grab it it took two years multiple quits
and let's see and it only worked when I
started from scratch an incrementally
added functionality it's your child now
you won't say anything bad about it
remember that you didn't choose your
interests you raise interest in a thing
you put effort
into also really good
yeah to be honest I lost my USB dongle
true
story poor USB dongle you know he had
the ability to make to make Sublime edit
like his on any platform and then goes
and loses it did I go fishing I used to
fish a lot Vim rocks hoodie comes in
when we'll think about it ah this is
great this this was actually a really
good article it makes me realize like
all the things that I had to do to go
through Vim uh mine was a little bit
different Journey but I did like I mean
I started in net beans or I started in
like some other editors uh blue jay then
net beans uh then I tried eclips hated
eclips back to net beans tried VI hated
VI went back to net beans then from net
beans I went to in from intell I started
Vim motions and then I started using Vim
motions and I got really good at Vim
motions and then from intellig I tried
out Vim hated Vim went back to intellig
went to vs code sublime's been sprinkled
on and off in there for so many times
from there I went to back to vs code
then I went to Adam realize Adam writes
everything in coffeescript went back to
vs code realized I still don't like vs
code retried Vim again still didn't like
it went back to intellig then eventually
I went back to vim and then I was just
using vim and starting to like it and
then I went and started using neovim and
I love it hey the
name don't even try it with me the name
is the primagen