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by thomastjeffery 3368 days ago
> 'shipping something today' is concerned, that's what keeps me from learning vim.

If you want to learn vim (I would definitely recommend you do), learn a little at a time. Vim is better suited to this approach than you might think.

People tend to focus on vim's learning curve, but as soon as you grok 3 things, you can do everything you used to do with normal editors. Then all you need to do is learn one small function at a time.

1. :command

:w save the file :q quit vim

2. Normal mode

You are here. Pressing a key runs a function. Escape cancels. u is undo, Ctrl-r is redo.

Every key has some specific use. You can learn them one at a time.

My favorite is . (the . key). It repeats the most recent action at the cursor.

3. Insert mode

Pressing i puts you in insert mode. Here you can enter text like normal until you press Escape

Remember that everything that happens between pressing i to pressing Escape is one action that can be undone or redone.

Later you will learn that a s r and o all do similar things to i.