DescentBB

I was looking at text editors the other day and came across vim.
Vim is command line based, and uses the writing fingers to navigate (ie H to more left, J up and such) It takes quite some getting used to!
Anyone else used vim before?
Seems to me to be quite nice, but yes, a very steep learning curve.

All this nonsense about using the arrow keys that has been ingrained into us. Ever realize that you had to turn your wrist and move your arm to do that while in the middle of typing?
To move up a row in vim you just hit esc (to go into "normal" mode) and then "k" to move up. Or 10k to move up 10 lines, or 100k to move up 100 lines.

If you try it and are completely stumped (Like I was), have a look at getting started.

Yes. I use it for taking notes and programming (with the exception of Java programming).

The vimtutor program is your friend. You should go through it at least twice, the second time after the first one has sunk in for about a week.

Regarding learning the hjkl motion keys, my advice is to disable the arrow keys in your .vimrc file (Google will help you with this--I've long since removed this from my file). Also, find some simple game that you enjoy like Tyrian and remap left/down/up/right to h/j/k/l. Between these two things, you'll learn them pretty quickly.

Avoiding the arrow keys isn't just good for speed but for avoiding wrist strain.

Also, keep in mind that in vim even using h/j/k/l is rarely the fastest way to move around long distances.

I use it, as well. I need to go through vimtutor a few more times, because I still don't have the majority of the stuff down. Like Jeff said, vim's real strength shows once you start to get the commands down beyond just the navigation. You can navigate, edit, etc. very quickly and efficiently once you get used to the commands.

I like vim. I started using GVim, which I kind a like.