Kinda curious as to why some people rave over vim?

Just tried it and instantly I prefer to use nano as a CLI editor, am I missing something or is it literally just a super subjective thing?

If you instantly swapped back, then yes, you are missing something. That being said, like @irene already mentioned, it is subjective (same goes for almost every tools), but the power of Vim comes from few things:

- Present on most system (i.e. no need to install it)

- Fast/stable tool

- Efficient if you're more of a keyboard guy

- Highly customisable

- etc.

If you do want to learn Vim, I suggest trying again and looking for guides (there are tons of them, even "games") to help you understand the controls.

Personally I quite like the idea of having syntax highlighting for pretty much everything you can throw at it. Customizability, ability to run Powerline in it and tabs (clickable when you enable mouse support) are also big factors that make me use vim over nano. In the future I'll probably see how I can add in file browsing as well.

@Condor I use Nerdtree for that.

@Condor Vim has a file browser: netrw. It can browse your local filesystem as well as remote ones through SSH or FTP, for example.

Emacs. Because someone mentioned vim and I'm required to.

Vim is a power tool that you really need to invest time in, and it gives back a decent increase in editing speed for your effort.

However, I found that using vim emulation in an IDE like IntelliJ is just so much better because of how well integrated IDEs are.

Though I've seen people edit code really, really fast even on things like nano or VSCode, so it's definitely a subjective thing.

@ethernetzero I often use netrw to find a file for editing. But a tree-based file browser like Nerdtree (that you can just dock in a buffer on the left side) is what I'm talking about. Netrw most certainly has its use as a file manager though!

@Condor At work I use Vimfiler, it's pretty cool: https://github.com/Shougo/...

It depends on how you're thinking.

Vim is incredible for efficient text editing. I.E. Finding the spot, substituting/appending/deleting it. Search engine is very fast. Based on regex. Editing commands are borrowed from the famous ed, which is a part of posix.

Vim has sooooo much to offer!
Yes, you cad do the same rask in all editors. But the question is: how efficiently? All the side utils make it great for development as well. Customization, macros, etc - will make it best suitable for your needs

emacs

😈 mode

@hackedranger Then, as per custom, I have to compliment you on the quality and usability of Emacs, but also remind you that it sorely lacks a good text editor.

@hackedranger
An old, polish movie, about "hackers" had this scene, where one young, computer genius, was trying to break into soem system (I don't remember details anymore, sorry)
So, the other dude comes in and asks how is it going.
Answer:
"Fortress. Classic, triple firewall."
"And have you tried using emacs through sendmail?"
"Yeah, but they flushed me."

Most polish IT people laugh at this, but it only proves how harsh were 90s for technology in this country.
I also don't know personally anyone, who uses Emacs. It is doomed, I guess.

If you spend a bazillion hours learning it you can save yourself a few seconds every time you edit. Or that's how the saying goes. I've given it a shot but it isn't for me. So try it and make up your own mind.

I prefer vim. I hear the opposite arguments (if you enter vim, you’ll never escape!)

It’s all about learning how to use it. I learned via first, so that’s what I use. I don’t know the shortcuts for nano!

Side note: I often find myself typing :w to save a file in Atom

@KimberlyTheGeek Heh, I usually find myself pressing Esc after typing some text in any application. 😅

Vim has a few advantages:

- Syntax highlighting.
- Nice integration with outside tools. (Need to edit a binary file? Just run it through xxd, make your changes, and run it again. You can even make a hotkey for that!)
- Plugins and highly configurable config file.
Hotkeys for days! You don't need to learn most of them. 5% and you will be up and running. 10% and you will be sprinting past every other editor. (Find this text, delete the whole line. Then go 12 lines down, swap the fifth and sixth characters, change this variable name, assign all that to hotkey, and then run that hotkey 1000 times in each file open. Damn!)

Personally it's what you like. Atom and vs code are great! But I love never starting x and hotkeying everything.