by godelski | 2026-02-02 20:38:34+00:00
> If you open vim with a file, like you do with all file editors, there's no such examples

I think you are being disingenuous here. I'm serious. VSCode isn't just plug and play. It isn't just "install and away you go". It's not much you have to be taught, but you did have to learn something from somewhere. Either from another IDE with similar visual language or because someone showed it to you.

Besides, your first usage of VSCode isn't going to be opening a file. It also gives you info at the startup.

Are you seriously telling me you haven't Googled how to use VSCode? Or did you just forget because you are now comfortable using it and used to it?

> not sure why we're pretending vim is easy to use

Because it is! I don't know why you're pretending it is hard.

The conversation is no different than iPhone users fumbling their first time on Android and Android users fumbling their first time on iPhones. If you didn't have to learn things then this would never happen. Can there be better communication around vim? Certainly, that's always going to be true. But "run `vimtutor`" is pretty effective and I'm sorry, DEVELOPERS shouldn't be documentation adverse.

If you want to use vim you only need to know a few things. `i` to start typing (insert), esc (or ctrl+[) to go to "command mode", `:w` to write, `:q` to quit. That's literally 4 things. In the standard vim config you can use your mouse and arrow keys, so you don't even need to learn hjkl to get going.

Truthfully, the main difference is where the learning happens. vim forces the user to learn a few things up front (and not many). Getting all my python envs and configuring everything in VSCode took me much longer than the 15-20 minutes it takes to read vimtutor. You get your "Hello World" out faster, but it also makes dealing with environments and other things harder.

What I will admit is that vim is hard to master.

But mastery is very different than usage. Even intermediate level is not hard to achieve once you understand the design language. It's a different way of thinking but come one, it's aimed at programmers. You're really telling me it is hard to learn that there's a command mode and a writing mode? That commands are composed of actions + motions? Going through vimtutor means you should know a lot more commands than vimtutor introduces because of this design language. But mastery? It requires reading docs and years. But that's not a flaw because what you can do in vim is nearly unbounded. While that's also kinda true about VSCode there is a much steeper learning curve you need to do fancy things and that knowledge isn't going to make you really better at general VSCode usage.

> It's a meme

So is the difficulty of assembling Ikea furniture.

People brag about how dumb they are all the time. I don't get how you think that's a defense. There's plenty of docs in the program itself and plenty more online. Many being well written. But ultimately vim isn't being targeted at the general audience (unlike Ikea furniture) and it's perfectly acceptable that it requires a little reading. By my screen you get all the commands I listed, and more, with two screens worth of text from vimturor. 1 screen if you split, since it is 80 chars width. That really isn't much reading. If that is the definition of "hard", for developers, then I have no hope for software. It shouldn't be "hard" or "too much" for anyone. Let's be honest. Are you really okay with the bar being so low that it's impossible for a blind person to trip over?

> It's also at the bottom of auth/credit/contribution fluff in your example

Here's the message

VIM - Vi IMproved

version 9.1.857
by Bram Moolenaar et al.
Vim is open source and freely distributable

Become a registered Vim user!
type :help register<Enter> for information

type :q<Enter> to exit
type :help<Enter> or <F1> for on-line help
type :help version9<Enter> for version info

Not even 10 lines...

If you brag about being lazy, expect to be called lazy.