[erikb]

Don't overload them. Present an easy to get started IDE and prepare some code that already generates a hello world in a GUI/browser. Then teach them a little fancy stuff like color changing, making a ball jump by pressing space, etc. If you hit a newcomer with vim and expect him to do something without giving him 2 years, then he will just think that programming is not for him.

[freedevbootcamp]

I picked vim because of all the plugin support and its long history. A person is going to have to learn an editor anyway so might as well learn the best. The learning methods I use for vim are just one book and several videos. I do not expect anyone to move on to the next learning topic until they feel comfortable and positive about learning vim. So if it takes a few months to learn vim they will retain the knowledge before they move on.

Thank you so much for your comment.

[erikb]

Look, I'm a huge fan of vim and use it 99.999999% of the time. But think about the first time you tried to quit from vim or to enter something, or to navigate while in command mode. That takes a huge effort. If you want to make your course about vim, that's also fine. A human brain can only take a certain amount of pain, though.