[snide]

This is what my Vim looks like.

http://www.webhook.com/webhook-uploads/1396995440381_1396021...

I'm a designer, not a programmer. I can't code perl, vimscript, and can barely read python or javascript. I can use git repos, which really is all I need to know how to setup Vim properly. That and I guess the ability to read some instructions. I've done nothing more than edit a .vimrc file.

It took me a month to switch to Vim from Sublime. There are certainly parts of this article that are true... it is hard to setup initially, but it's not two years, and it's not ugly. For me, the monospace fonts means that EVERYTHING in my vim window is aligned correctly.

Believe it or not I use Vim partially because it allowed me to set up the prettiest editor possible. Sublime just LOOKS bloated to me at this point.

I'd say by month 3 I was doing things faster in Vim. It had NOTHING to do with movement around my screen (though I certainly love that as well). It had everything to do with tailoring my editor to do what I wanted it to do when I performed certain actions / key commands.

In the end I think Vim is a fingerprint. Mine is different than yours. That's pretty awesome and certain of us really want that.

What I will say is that the vimscripts website is garbage. That is absolutely true.

[coldtea]

Is the screenshot supposed to be impressive? It has all the constraints the post mentioned.

>Sublime just LOOKS bloated to me at this point.

There are tons of themes you can use, including some far more minimal than your Vim screenshot. Don't know exactly what "looks" bloated.

[wonderzombie]

I guess bloat is subjective. Your setup looks nice and I'm glad you found something that works for you. But on the flip side, it "looks" bloated to me, too— any reasonably useful Vim setup will have at least a dozen or so plugins and/or an intricate .vimrc.

Sublime Text did almost all I wanted out of the box. Maybe it has more functionality than I need, but it won hands down in terms of installing (and maintaining) software in order for it to be usable for me.

FWIW, since I abandoned Vim as my main editor, I just grab spf13-vim[0] when I want to use it. It's still really handy to be able to type vi foo to edit a file at the command line.

[0]: http://vim.spf13.com/

[hbosch]

I have to ask, being that I am a designer too, do you find it awkward to move from Vim keybindings into design programs? I have an interest in learning Vim, due to all of the vehement and myriad posts about productivity increase, but I can't divorce myself from the design programs I use (~80-90% of my day, Adobe/Sketch) and their keybinding philosophies in order to feel very comfortable switching directly to Vim and back.

MacVim solves this for me to some extent, but since I don't have the time to dedicate toward learning the veritable library of Vim commands I find myself returning to Sublime over and over again.

[snide]

Text programs and design programs are already so different it's never a problem.

I'd equate it more to using your mouse for everything in photoshop or spending the time to learn that V selects the arrow key, and G selects the paint bucket.

Once you learn vim commands it's more a problem of using regular text fields (like the one I'm commenting in now). Right now I really want to use Vim key commands, and have to tell myself to Shift-left to get to the beginning of this line.

[stickperson]

Whoa, I had no clue you could do all that. Did you follow any guides? I'd love to see my folder structure and be able to switch colors.

[snide]

If you're someone that is coming from Sublime and are used to its features, I'd start with this consolidated plugin repo. It's unmaintained now, but was an excellent primer for me on how to set up the guts of my vim setup.

https://github.com/fatih/subvim

I ended up modifying it pretty drastically over the course of a month. And essentially I think that's why the author stopped maintaining it. Everyone will set up vim their own way. That's kind of the point.

[Cederfjard]

S/he is using https://github.com/scrooloose/nerdtree for the file exploration on the left.

As for switching colors I'd imagine this page would help, though I'll admit I haven't read it: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Switch_color_schemes

I use Tomorrow Night myself: https://github.com/chriskempson/tomorrow-theme

[danford]

>switch colors

If you have gnome terminal you can use different built in themes and fiddle with the color pallet.

[warning: high-contrast light theme] http://i.imgur.com/tITUU55.png

[niix]

Please share your .vimrc or any plugins you use.

[snide]

I have some descriptions and links to my mac setup on this blog post. It covers all my dev programs not just Vim, but maybe I'll get around to cleaning up my fork and providing the setup for others.

http://www.webhook.com/blog/making-the-most-of-your-mac/