Intro to Vim

If you have 25 minutes to spare, watch Derek Wyatt's video about why coders should learn Vim.

Derek is charismatic and fun to watch, for one --- about as good as any TV show I waste my time on. Better though: he has a whole series of videos teaching the curious coder about Vim. And why not be entertained while learning how to wield this mighty weapon of choice?  

The Vim Screen

I learned Vim very slowly over the years (read: "I didn't really know how to use Vim over the years"), using it only occasionally when I had to do something quick from the command line. I remember the first time I saw its extremely plain, featureless screen and thinking, "This thing can't possibly be as good as everyone says it is." I figured that Vim must be one of those "back in the old days" kind of things... But every time I needed to edit
something at the command line real quick I'd think of Vim. I was intrigued and intimidated by all the good things people had to say about it. 

Recently I've been working at the command line quite a bit and frequently switching between languages, which usually means between editors / development environments. I wanted some consistency. I thought, "Why not try Vim again?" A few Google searches later I was playing Vim Adventures. Cost 25 bucks, but I figured, hey, this will be a fun way to pick up a new skill on my off time...and I've blown 25 bucks on worse things!

Fun it was, but after learning all it had to teach there is often something I need to do that I don't know how, or I will wonder if there is a Vim extension to do such-and-such. I'm currently learning about various Vim plug-ins (e.g., Vim-LaTeX) and can't help but to realize I still know diddly squat about the inherent powers lurking underneath the illusory screen simplicity of Vim.

So-- I'm going to give these videos a go and, hopefully, I learn a thing or two.