For those who don’t know Vim is a text-editor. However unlike other text editors Vim is used inside a terminal.

This article is not a review or guide about Vim, you can find plenty out there on the Internet. Instead I will just summarize my experience so far, I have been using Vim for a little bit over a month, and I am still an amateur, yes… It takes months of usage to become experienced with Vim, and years to master it.

When I was searching for a text-editor I came across this text editor called Vim. I heard it was a really powerful editor and that a lot of hardcore programmers use it. So I said to myself, what the heck, I’ll try it. My first experience was horrible!! When I tried to edit a file with it, I could not point with my mouse, I could not write anything, the keyboard did weird stuff when pressed, and even worse I could not even exit. I said to myself, “This is so stupid”. I went to Google and researched a bit, then I realized that to do anything in Vim you take actions with hotkeys and commands. Why would anyone make a text editor like that I thought, everything seems so complicated. A text editor should be simple.

I went back to my old editor.

After months I met this guy, he was really passionate with Vim, his passion influenced me. At some point I decided to give Vim another go. This time I was determined to give my best and really try to learn to use it. In the beginning it was frustrating I could hardly navigate, I was continually switching to Google and searching how to do stuff, reading guides and tutorials, but eventually things become easier and easier. Things started to make sense, I was understanding why would someone want all these shortcuts and commands around, why there would be 3 different modes. I was getting in the world of Vim.

Then productivity started to kick in. I was starting to get more and more productive, and writing became an enjoyed activity! It felt good not to have to move your hands away from the keyboard. Anything I wanted to do in a text editor I could do it simply by typing. Vim is all about reflexes, you have to become familiar with the hotkeys, they have to go deep into your skin, but when they do… when they do you will experience typing like never before.

They say Vim is going to be the last text editor you are going to learn. I think I ought to agree.

I will write more about my experience with the Vim editor in the 3 months mark.

Here a guide that helped me get started Learn Vim Progressively
Also try typing vimtutor in your shell.