Why even bother with Vim or Neovim in 2022?

In this video I take a look at why you should use Vim at all with some UI design theory.

Vim (or Neovim) are examples of a particular type of UI design which are common of unix or linux tool. In this video I explore the UI dichotomy of Vim.

[karolus__]

Drawing a line between discoverability and expressiveness was great to illustrate the case – well done! I also view user friendliness as variant that may differ depending on the user group. I.e if you design a product for wide range of people (let's say a UI for a train ticket machine) it have to be quickly discoverable – people would like to buy a ticket as fast as possible to don't miss the train ;) On the other hand if you design a product for specific group of users (like typewriters, programmers, etc.) who spent whole working day using the product, it may be less discovarable at the beginning, but in the end it could make their work way more efficient by introducing expresiveness. Btw. cool you're back here making videos, keep it up!

[jameender]

One of the best videos I've seen on why use vim that actually talks about not everyone needing to use it (for example that they don't manipulate text that often).

[RolandAyala]

@5:05 - 5:20 is poetic and great advice for anybody considering using vim over GUI editor / IDE, and applies to so many other things in life as well.

[pratikmahamuni]

Its a great to see (and hear) some sensible arguments rather than some "brogrammer" tell you how you should use one thing or the other!

[jrr]

I foolishly resisted really learning vim for such a long time since I had no idea of the awesomeness of editing with vi-motions, macros, ++.
I really got going by using a toggleable vim Plugin in my IDE, still able to fall back on known shortcuts and methods was nice.
Run through vimtutor several times over a few weeks and force yourself to use it on real code. A bit of a learning curve to get decent yes, but sooo worth it.

Good argument for a simple to install preconfigured vim GUI app with meaningful menus, out of the box plugins, configuration, defaults, to ease the entry until you can/want to hang with the cool kids using nvim built from source in a terminal.
(Yeah, sure clone a good repo config, and the builtin help is nice once you have learned how to navigate it)

[freshhawk]

This makes the point very well, great job. It is a common red flag for UI designers to be unaware of different types of users, especially expert users and expert interfaces (which exist in all fields), and to assume that all products are aimed at beginners and on-ramping new users. I've seen plenty of them blow an interview with these kinds of opinions, including at companies that build expert products (with expert, non-discoverable, interfaces).
My gut says it is the result of so many UI jobs being solely focused on inbound web leads and sales/sign-up funnels and little experience with other classes of user, and probably Apple's massive influence, but I'm not sure.
It makes for great screening questions at least, but hopefully it will stop being so effective someday.

[jessehigginson]

Great video! Very balanced. If I may suggest, the importance of discoverability only plummets over time for the things you do regularly. The moment you need to accomplish something new (or differently to the way you normally accomplish it), discoverability suddenly becomes very important again.

[nikfp]

I think this is mostly true, but I've found with Neovim that there is a point past "expressiveness" where you can reach "discoverable expressiveness". Case in point: in my current setup I can both configure it any way I could ever imagine, and I also have fuzzy finding search tools for files, words in files, keymaps, help documents for Neovim core and plugins, etc. It's all within easy reach, so the further I go, the more discoverable it becomes. Couple that with the ability to set it up exactly how I want it to work and it becomes a very intuitive user experience that "gets out of the way" and lets me translate thought to code with much less friction. It was never about speed for me, it was about getting the point I'm at now. And I am very happy with it.

[marvinfariasrodrigues]

Entered the video trying to figure if it worth using vim and learned a lot of other useful stuff.
Thanks for the video!

[ddknight]

Such tweets are typical toxic ignorance of the people: blame without investigation. I just don't put attention to such toxic people anymore, and my life became better. Thanks for video's author who spent his own time to make such a great answer! But as for me I try to avoid such toxic ignorant people.

[rouchar]

The best explanation I've heard yet. This went to my favourites and I'll use it to (hopefully) settle some of those notorious Nano vs Vim debates :)

[rahuldev]

Once you spent some time with vim basics in starting days you will never forget to use it,
it's like learning bicycle, once you learn it even you drive after 3 years, your muscles knows what to do.
I use it after 3 years my fingers knows what keys to press and stay on alphabet keys for all work.

[AxL]

best explanation ive come so far about this subject on Vim VS anything-else

[ipelengmolete]

I think this video best puts into words how to explain my decision to switch over to vim. I'd say, I got tired of VSCode bloat (went too down far the discoverability tunnel) but his explanation sounds much nicer!

[fabricehategekimana]

Thanks for the video! At a time when the internet community is debating with violence and lack of humanity, your calm and thoughtful way makes a difference. I'm glad someone like you is standing up for Vim

[yvrelna]

I don't think drawing a line between discoverability and expressiveness is really accurate here.

You need a 2 dimensional plot, one axis is discoverability, the other is expressiveness. In this plot, there's a line connecting "maximum expressiveness, little discoverability" and "maximum discoverability, little expressiveness". This is the "optimal trade-off line".

Poor user interface can put a user interface below the "optimal trade-off line"; it is possible to build a user interface that's both non-discoverable and non expressive, but a user interface that's above the "optimal trade-off line" is unachievable, because, as you rightly said, as you improve expressiveness, you often has to sacrifice discoverability and vice versa.

[deepbuilds]

Your channel is a hidden gem, you should make more random videos like this.

[tobias-edwards]

Crystal clear voice, must be from all those clouds you're inhaling

[Jadoremalangue]

Great video again! Love seeing a new video from you, instant must watch

[benamato]

Expression is a good way of putting it. I mean it's like musical instruments ... which are not designed to make it easy for beginners primarily. They are designed for those who have the patience to make them essentially part of their body, or muscle memory. And then magic can happen :)