Why every software engineer should use vim (2024)

FAQs

Why every software engineer should use vim? ›

VIM (or more exactly, the VIM motions) is far superior to a normal text editor. It gives you the power to edit code by it's properties. You can move by lines, words, paragraphs, parentheses, you name it. You use syntactic logic to move, edit, jump to definitions, you name it.

We have learned that Vim is a powerful text editor popular among developers. It's based on shortcuts, called the Vim language, which can make coding and writing faster and more efficient. With Vim, you can jump to any specific text position and rapidly make precise edits.

Many people ask for the best text editor for the programming contest. So, according to me vim is a great tool for competitive programming. It is not very comfortable to use it at first but after some time you will feel it is the best text editor ever made.

One of the primary reasons developers should consider learning Vim is its exceptional efficiency in text editing tasks. Vim's modal editing system, extensive keyboard shortcuts, and powerful text manipulation commands allow users to perform complex editing operations with speed and precision.

Microsoft Visual Studio (32%) IntelliJ (28%) Notepad++ (28%) Vim (23%)

VIM (or more exactly, the VIM motions) is far superior to a normal text editor. It gives you the power to edit code by it's properties. You can move by lines, words, paragraphs, parentheses, you name it. You use syntactic logic to move, edit, jump to definitions, you name it.

This is another area where Vim shines. Vim runs in the terminal and can be used in any environment, whether a GUI is present or not. Vim has the same keybinding set across all operating systems, unlike Vscode, which has different shortcuts for Linux, Mac, and Windows. So with Vim, you learn once and use it everywhere.

Linus Torvalds has pretty much always used an Emacs variant for his work on the kernel. Matz uses Emacs for his work on Ruby. DHH uses TextMate, a text editor. Pretty much every major piece of software that you can name on the Unix platform was and is developed in either Emacs or Vim.

Understanding the Underlying Processes: While IDEs provide powerful debugging and automation features, they often abstract away the intricate details of program execution. Vim, being a lightweight text editor, encourages a deeper understanding of the underlying processes.

The advantage of vim is that you can quickly edit files from command line and has very advanced text processing capabilities. But again, a good IDE can do all this.

Why is Vim still popular? ›

Vim is always available. Any Linux machine has it. Vim has a small footprint, low latency, fast startup, allows for more screen space, customizable and most importantly, once the muscle-memory has been ingrained, it's nearly impossible to switch to something else.

While the path to mastering Vim may seem daunting, the endless possibilities it offers in terms of speed, health benefits, and adaptability make it a skill worth acquiring.

Having at least a basic functional knowledge of VIM is good because it can often be the default editor for new computers or a coworker's computer. It's not something that I would bother putting a lot of work into or including on a resume.

Vim has its advantage when someone has to work on remote server and sometimes for development work but for competitive programming purpose, a good GUI-based editor (like Sublime Text, Atom etc) seems to be a better choice.

As the resident senior developer (err, old fogey), I feel it's my duty to tell you about the only TRUE Python development environment you will ever need: VIM. That's right. VIM is ubiquitous and fast, and it never crashes. It can also do just about anything!

For a senior developer who's either always scripting away in a terminal or simply used to the platform, Vim is the way to go. You wouldn't want to take the least experienced C++ developer and then drop them inside Vim to code. Other editors and environments have changed over the years, fallen out of fashion.

Benefits of Using Vim. Speed and Efficiency: Vim is designed to be an efficient text editor. Its modal editing and commands can help you work faster and more efficiently. You can use shortcuts and commands to perform complex operations with fewer keystrokes.

Vim's rich feature set and customizability make it a powerhouse for experienced users seeking ultimate control over their editing environment. Conversely, Nano's simplicity and accessibility appeal to beginners and those prioritizing ease of use.