John Beckett wrote:
Bram Moolenaar wrote:
The idea is that you can press ESC a few times without having to
check what mode you are in exactly (that can be quite difficult at
times). Typing one ESC too many is easily done, I don't like this
to have side effects.
Of course, and I wouldn't have suggested that pressing ESC should
clear search highlights if that action weren't harmless.
However, all I really wanted was to have my 'humble opinion' heard,
and you've been patient spelling out the problems - thanks.
I'm only making these suggestions because I know you want to
promote Vim usage, and some way to easily invoke a
pre-defined set of behaviour for a modern PC would help IMHO.
It's a bit dangerous to assume that someone else wants something.
Do you know about the Abeline paradox?
In the downloaded BOF, you said "What would be the killer feature
for Vim 8 ...[so] a lot more people will start using Vim?". I
agree that words can be dangerous, but surely it's reasonable to
conclude from the BOF that you want to promote Vim usage?
I know you had a "killer feature" in mind. I'm putting the contrary
view that work should instead go into making the existing features
more accessible.
I don't think you can define "modern PC" without getting into a
lot of discissions. Unless you mean "MS-Windows XP PC with
notepad", that would be clearer.
Making Vim work on its extraordinary range of platforms is a
magnificent achievement, and I'm not suggesting that Vim should be
configured in a way that interferes with that.
By "modern PC" I mean any system from the last few years, running
Linux or MS-Windows or whatever (not a terminal). IMHO some built-in
samples making use of function keys would help promote Vim. The Vim
Tips website is not useful for someone who just wants to evaluate
whether Vim would help them in their next programming project. It
would require a very dedicated new user to select one of the
competing tips, then figure out how to install and use it.
IMHO it is important that function keys (with the exception of F1 = :help)
should by default _not_ have preset functions in Vim, in order that they be
safely available for whatever mappings any user would want to assign to them,
without competing with existing functions. There aren't so many keys that
users can safely use as the {lhs} of a mapping with no fear that it will
collide with an existing function.
Perhaps providing a file with commented-out option settings and
mappings.
Yes. This would be relatively painless. In my wild imagination, I
prefer a command in Vim that would edit vimrc (creating it if
necessary), then append/edit a source command that includes a
"standard" script distributed with Vim.
Take the wonderful quickfix window (which I use mainly for vimgrep)
That's just because you happen to need this, and pick the one
feature out of the thousands available and map it to a key.
Yes - I am being prescriptive. There should be a "do it this way"
built-in script with a carefully planned set of mappings for a
programmer. That would include mapping common quickfix and tags
operations to function keys.
Also include another set of mappings for a poet, or whatever. But
IMHO it is a shame that a C programmer might try Vim but not have
the time or patience to see how well grep and ctags can be
integrated into an editor.
Everybody has a different set of features that he needs.
Yes. So how about providing a built-in template just for C
programmers (and maybe a couple of other categories, if they can
readily be identified). If a C programmer tried Vim for an hour,
wouldn't you want them to see grep and ctags? A new user won't be
convinced by the statement "just type ':cn' for the next hit, and
BTW you can map it to a key if you want to take another hour".
To finish, I'm not suggesting that the optimum one-size-fits-all set
of mappings be determined. Any set of well-planned mappings
would be better than the current blank slate.
John
I'm not convinced. Vim users are such a medley lot that what is "well-planned"
for some might quite well be not only be "ill-planned" but even a PITA for others.
Best regards,
Tony.
