[TxMt] Re: My VIM experience

[Ben Wilson]

As a long-time VIM-er, I confess it is hard to switch to a tool like
TextMate or Emacs. I haven't played much with the split screens in
VIM. As for regex/grep; you can get that with other command line
tools. That may require more CLI wizardry than you prefer.

And I have to agree about navigating via the keyboard. CTRL+key does
not compare. Last night I had a document I thought I could pound out
real quick, and VIM'd it. It ended up being a major sorting/editing
effort, which I was able to do quickly via VIM.

I could probably have been just as proficient with TextMate key
bindings; but I've not learned them yet. And, to be fair, I have a
decade of dedicated, professional VIM use. So, it's like driving or
eating.

What I like about TextMate is it's meta behaviors. How it handles
spell check, the project view on the right side. I tried using
Scrivener to work on my novel, but found TextMate fit my style. (I
used VIM for my last novel...)

On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 12:56 AM, Martin Hess <martinhess at me.com> wrote:
> I've been using TextMate for years and I'm productive and happy with it. However, I like to try other editors from time to time to see if I'm missing anything. Recently I spent some time learning Vim and I discovered a few things that I particularly liked.
>
> 1) Split windows -- not the kind of split windows you normally get in Mac applications, but the Vim style ones. In Vim you can easily navigate from the keyboard to your different splits and choose what files to display in each. Additionally, you don't have to reach for your mouse to create a split. When you split, Vim divides the space up for you which is what you want most of the time. I found that it is very handy when needing to view more than 1 file at a time, which in my case is most of the time. Closing splits is about as easy as they are to create -- all from the keyboard. Multiple windows isn't really the same thing because they are slow to setup and tear down.
>
> 2) Selective multifile grep -- in Vim you can use a regular expression to open a set of files, and then just grep across the open files.
>
> 3) Don't need arrow keys -- after years of editing with the mouse; I find it painful to reach for it. It hurts my right shoulder and shoulder blade. It even hurts to have to move my hand down to the arrow keys. However, in Vim it is easy to keep your hands resting on your keyboard with your shoulders relaxed. No reaching for the mouse or arrow keys.
>
>
>
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-- 
Ben Wilson
"We cannot determine the character or nature of a system within
itself. Efforts to do so will only generate confusion and disorder."
Boyd