On 04/07/2011 04:15 PM, Eric Weir wrote:
I've downloaded and installed a copy of MacVim. I've peeked at a few of the help topics. [I'd like to run the tutorial, but haven't figured out how to do that, yet.] I'm not a programmer. Far from it. I'm intrigued for a least a couple reasons, the main one being the fact that Vim is command-driven, that everything's done from the keyboard. [My very first experience with an "editor" was with Wordstar on CPM, and I've missed doing everything from the keyboard ever since.] The outliner plugins appeal to me as well. [I was a long-time devote of MaxThink, running it in a DOS Window after moving to Windows from DOS, and in DOSBox under Linux and now on a Mac.] And so does the possibility of using it as a file manager as well as editor. Still, as I imagine many are, I'm a bit intimidated complexity of the commands and the steep learning curve. So, I'm wondering if there are any ordinary, nonprogrammer writers here who've gotten comfortable with Vim as a writer's editor -- or is that just ridiculous to think of? Thanks, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eric Weir Decatur, GA USA [email protected]
I am a programmer but I do use Vim for anything and everything, emails, authoring documentation, outlines, todo lists, you name it. The way I think about this is.. it does have quite a learning curve and even though others will disagree, my feeling is that the documentation and help system are very, very far from ideal for a new user (although both are near perfect as a reference for dyed-in-the-wool user); however, it all makes sense if you intend to do a lot of text editing over the next 20+ years. Programming is becoming more available to non-programmers and that's something to keep in mind if not for tomorrow then for the day after tomorrow (possibility of catastrophic climate change notwithstanding). I also want to add that if I were using vim mainly for writing text, there's one plugin I would find particularly enticing: AutoCompletePopup (you can search for it on google or vim.org). It completes the words for you automatically as you type, and shows you a menu where you can use ctrl-n/p shorcuts to select the match. Some may find it annoying but once I got used to it I feel like it does 30% of the work for me and it doesn't require remembering any vim commands, so I think it's a really useful and "sexy" plugin for new users especially. -Rainyday
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