On Wed, 16 Aug 2000, Mallard pushed some tiny letters in this order:
> Fredrik Nilsson wrote (in part):
> > I have made a short list of some useful commands.
> >
>
> WOW, that convinces me, let's see...
>
> I want to copy this word so yw, but wait, I have to tell it what word,
> so Mkkkklllljjjjj on over there near it and then yw and then
> Mkkkkklljjjll on over to where I want it and drop it in (I hope) p then
I thank the poster of the abbreviated command list for his attempt to help
those struggling to understand vim. It wasn't an attempt to convince anyone
of vi's superiority it was just a bit of friendly help.
How is Mkkkklllljjjj etc. any harder from dos edit's "I want to copy
this word so I have to go to line X with the arrow up/down keys, move over to
the word using the arrow left/right keys, highlight the word using shift left
arrow until it's done, press ctrl-c move back to the line where I want to put
it using arrow keys again, press ctrl-v" ? If anything using vim's left 1
word/right 1 word key should speed things up in this instance. Note also that
you can also use the arrow keys in vim to do the same.
> I want to do some insert, let's see is it i or a, or was it I or A, I
> forgot since yesterday, well let me try it... WHOOPS! I lost what I was
Switching to an editing mode you can use any of those keys and a few more too.
They all accomplish different things.
> doing, pressed dd in error and deleted the whole line. no problem, I am
> a geek and want to sit here all night because it's like making love to
> my keyboard, gives me a good feeling to press these keys till my fingers
> are numb.
If you ever press dd in error then just issue :u to undo what you just did. If
you're ever asking yourself "Am I in command mode or an editing mode??" then
'set showmode on' in your .vimrc will fix that. Vim is designed so that you
have less typing to do not more, the trade off being a bit more of a learning
curve.
>
> I don't care how many wonderful commands it has, TRASH IT! I can't see a
> simple editor that allows you to edit a few lines taking any more than
> 20K, so space or features are not a issue here, it's SIMPLICITY. Cursor
> moves with the arrow keys, insert mode always on (backspace eats) and a
In vim the cursor DOES move with the arrow keys. When insert mode is on
backspace DOES eat characters. Are you sure you aren't running vim in the horrid
'vi compatibility mode' ? If you want simplicity then by all means feel free
to use pico.
> simple exit like ESC and it asks you if you want to save changes. More
> is not better for simple tasks. Anything that needs more than that and I
> will use a GUI editor and FTP the file over if I have to. It's not 1978
> anymore! Isn't there something like the Mac user interface guidelines
> available online?
>
No-one is forcing you to use vim. If you don't like it use something else! Can
we kill this thread please? The best thing to come out of it would be for
Mandrakesoft to take the suggestion of a default editor selection at
installation time because complaining how vi sucks or how vi rocks so much at
length is just igniting a holy flame war.
