Why I Hate VIM

Yes "hate" is a bit of a strong word, but so is "love." (Laugh--these two pages are a joke. Read the first item on both. See?)

  • Vim utilizes computer technology and human interface concepts from the 60's with text commands to accomplish everything, so that you don't need to worry if it will work with your new-fangled mouse or monitor.
  • Vim is modal. Being modal means that the program is allowed to function however it wants whenever it wants.
  • Vim modal editing means the user must not concentrate on editing, but must instead try and also remember or visually track in some fashion which of eleven sets of keystrokes may be valid at the particular moment. (Until the next key is typed, of course.)
  • Vim modes mean more keystrokes to learn. Eleven times more.
  • Vim modes are intentionally indistinguishable from each other half the time. This considerable overlap ensures that the maximum number of interface choices are available within each, even though I can't remember which half I need right now.
  • Vim users (select ones, most are quite kind) are rabid zealots describing how fast they can work without a mouse or GUI. We've all heard these few disparage GUIs as being slower than keyboard input. (You and I know this isn't true except for someone who has used Vim at least eight years. Graphic interfaces are much easier for us to learn and are more accessible when properly designed. We're not interested in customizing applications, just using them. Granted we don't mind having more power under the hood when we're ready to grow into it, but at our own pace please.)
  • Vim requires the manual editing of settings files simply to save preferences. This means that by the time I've figured out how to get the help open and save the document I'm working on, it is time to go home so I can re-learn everything tomorrow. There is a documented method for exporting your current settings to file, but you'll have to remember to do it each time you change a setting or they'll be lost forever.
  • Vim has countless default autocommands, which means that whatever you think you just figure out will be overwritten when you save. Or change buffers. Or restart. Usually.
  • Vim is programmed by very smart people. Smart people think differently than the rest of us.
  • Vim is used by a lot of very smart people and they don't have time to help the rest of us learn it by writing books like "Vim for Dummys" with funny cartoons. (Fortunately, Vim users are quite kind and will offer help through the Vim Online Support page.)
  • Vim documentation and help are the size of many books (186,463 lines, or 2,121 pages!) and yet have not one picture.
  • Vim has a quick reference (:help quickref) which has only 1,300 lines of helpful commands. This is fortunate, because the exhaustive index of commands (:help index) has a staggering 1,375 lines.
  • Vim has an easy-to-begin User's Manual with only 15,643 lines (177 pages) and which cross-references the more verbose main manual only about as often as it does to itself.
  • Vim takes so long to learn that people who have made the effort now live in subterranean caves were we can't bother them. These few are responsible for supporting exactly one third of the world's economy, but would be more inclined to discuss why one's CapsLock and Ctrl keys are reversed than listen to ranting about why ":q!" does not seem an intuitive way to quit Vim. (Or ":wq", "ZZ" or ":xa" either for that matter.)