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52 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
52 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
## Introduction
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The modal editor's fall into obscurity is truly one of the greatest losses in the history of computing.
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There's no denying that point-and-click is _easy_, and sure, it's enough for the majority of people using
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their computer as a minor tool.
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But for those who use a text editor as their natural habitat, there's no reason why text editors should stop at
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pointing the mouse where you want to go and typing. This leads to the typical editing session consisting of:
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- Scroll around with mouse
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- Locate the location where you want to add text
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- Move mouse to location, click it
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- Finally, move back to the keyboard and make your edit
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Then, switch back to your mouse and repeat.
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Of course, there are ways in which users seek to streamline this process. Almost everyone who edits text
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daily knows at least a few keyboard shortcuts to quickly jump around words and in between lines to move to nearby
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points of interest quickly without switching back to the mouse. Other more dedicated power users might learn a slew of
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modifier-key based commands to quickly navigate around, removing the need for a mouse entirely when editing within
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a file.
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All of these, however, are halfway solutions. Namely, they generally utilize a modifier based approach. Hold `ctrl`
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(or `option`, on macOS) and use the arrow keys to navigate quickly. Hold `ctrl` and hit `delete` to delete entire words at once.
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Hold `shift` to highlight text. `ctrl + c` copies, `ctrl + v` pastes, `ctrl + x` cuts. You get the idea.
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A pseudo- medical condition has even been coined for this reliance on modifier keys: the dreaded Emacs pinky, where
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users of emacs, which relies heavily on `ctrl`, `meta`, and other modifier based shortcuts, experience RSI due to their
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frequent usage of their pinky to stretch down to those keys.
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This method of designing and organizing the text editor is wrong. _Moving around text_ (and files) is just as, if not
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more prevalent than inserting text itself. So why treat navigation as an afterthought? Why should you _edit by default_,
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and hold a modifier key to temporarily enable a different control scheme which handles locomotion? This is where the
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genius of the modal editor comes in.
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## Vim
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In Vim, the editor itself is split into three main "modes", hence the classification of "modal". Instead of treating
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navigation as an afterthought, Vim opens in its "normal mode", which provides the user with many keys to move around their
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text file: `hjkl` as arrow keys, `b`, `e`, and `w`, to navigate around words, `0`, `$`, and `_` to jump around lines, `{`, `}`,
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`z`, and more, for quickly repositioning your cursor and screen vertically. Notice how all of these keys are easily accessible
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from the home row. Just as importantly, notice how there's no need for you to hold any modifiers to access these actions.
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These keys don't input text in normal mode; they simply handle navigation. Many point-and-click acolytes believe this to be
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a failure. "Why wouldn't you want your editor to _edit_ by default?" Of course, this is not a failure, but one of its
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greatest strengths. How many times do you open a file and immediately need to start editing? Almost always, you need to first
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navigate to a specific location, usually move or change some text, and then begin editing. In Vim, this is streamlined by
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default. You can navigate the entire file using just commands found near the home row, without needing to use a mouse or
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hit complicated chords. Instead of treating navigation as an afterthought for power-users, it treats it as a primary
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feature of the editor itself.
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Written on Neovim.
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