Many tools come and go as our software and devices change - or we get bored and want to try something new and shiny. One of the few exceptions for me has been the Vim text editor, which I use for programming, emails, and writing every day. In this post I want to share why Vim is remarkable but more generally why learning a text editor is a great investment.
It may not be obvious why text editors are useful tools. Many programs, like web browsers, email clients, and integrated development environments (IDEs), have built-in text editing functionality. Why use a separate text editor? Text editors go deep. They are much more powerful than text boxes in browsers and email clients while being more general than IDEs. While IDEs often have excellent programming language-specific functionality, they are rarely used for other text editing tasks like writing emails or documents because they are specialized tools. Text editors strike a good balance of powerful editing and support for programming without being boxed into a narrow use-case.
Getting started with a text editor is easy. Vim implements the arcane vi editor user interface but has many videos, cheatsheets, and tutorials that make it fun to try. Really getting familiar with the features and customizing the editor to your own needs takes time though. This is true for any popular text editor because the number of settings, extensions, or plugins available can be huge. However, once you are familiar with a text editor you will have a powerful tool that can be used for most tasks involving writing or manipulating text. The time investment will pay off as you use the editor for todo lists, emails, documentation, programming, configuration files, and more.
This explains why I've found Vim a useful and enduring tool that I use daily. But what makes it a particularly strong text editor compared to the other options? Text editors go in and out of fashion all the time. I remember many that attracted attention for a time but then faded away. Vim has remained popular and I think there are a few reasons for that.
Powerful text editing plus IDE-like functionality. The vi user interface is actually a language of text editing operators. The keys you press aren't just keyboard shortcuts, they are like a bytecode (!) for a text manipulation CPU that is Turing-complete. Years ago I wrote vi macros that solve the stable marriage problem to demonstrate this. For many geeks this alone might be enough to convince you to learn Vim! But on top of this crazy text editing power Vim also has IDE-like functionality including syntax highlighting, completion, code search and navigation, compiler error navigation, and diffing. There is a large collection of plugins and scripts if you want to extend Vim's functionality even further.
Vim is ubiquitous. It runs on all major operating systems but furthermore it is found on devices from tiny Wi-Fi routers to the largest servers. It has a GUI but also a terminal interface if you are connecting to a remote machine over SSH. I always find it strange when I see people use their editor of choice on their laptop but then use another, less-familiar editor when connecting to remote machines. Learn Vim and you can use it everywhere!
Keyboard-friendly. Constantly moving my hand between the mouse and keyboard is tiring and distracting. Vim has excellent keyboard support and many things can be done without leaving the home row on the keyboard, including navigating, inserting, and deleting text. I find there is no need to use the arrow keys, mouse, or anything that is hard to reach.
If you are looking for a powerful text editor that you can use for many years then I recommend Vim. It's also worth looking at Emacs, which has a different angle but is also a good time investment. Looking back on 17 years of using Vim, I'm happy I stopped switching between language-specific IDEs and instead found a text editor capable of handling all tasks.
