Vim Language, Motions, and Modes Explained

Summary

Throughout my time as a developer, I’ve used VS Code, Sublime, Notepad++, TextMate, and others. But shortcuts like cmd(+shift)+end and jumping with option+arrow-keys from word to word needed to be faster at some point. I was hitting my limits. Everything I was doing I did decently fast, but I didn’t get any faster. I’ve since learned that Vim is the only editor that you get faster using with time. Vim is based solely on shortcuts. When I discovered that and played around a bit, I felt numb and a little stupid, having not learned the shortcuts (called Vim language) much earlier in my career. I realized there was a keystroke to get to any specific position I wanted to jump. It was like a game, seeing if I could use fewer shortcuts to accomplish a particular edit. It’s where many Vim users get a lot of pleasure from coding and writing. It felt liberating, moving my cursor with the precision of a surgeon. Although speed is a smaller benefit, it got me started when I saw others navigating in Vim. After climbing the steep learning curve, it’s still one of the most powerful skills I’ve ever learned in my career, working for a living on a computer. Let’s debunk the myth of Vim and learn how it’s possible to remember all the shortcuts using the specific Vim language. We’ll see how to move with vim motions, and I’ll share what I’ve learned so far, and why you might give Vim a try as well. Learning the Vim Language Lots of things have been said about Vim – how fast it is, how only Linux nerds use it, and that it’s impossible to exit Vim. For myself, I fell in love with the “Vim language”. You see, I’m bad at remembering anything and thought that Vim was not for me. But this wasn’t the case for one specific reason: Vim motions and its language. I learned that there’s a grammar behind the editor. With it, you express what you want to do first, how many times, and then what you want it to apply. Let’s get deeper into Vim and the language behind it. How the Vim Language and Motion...