HACKER Q&A
📣 travislane

How important is it to learn Vim in 2019?


How important is it to learn Vim in 2019?


  👤 Hackbraten Accepted Answer ✓
Two scenarios:

1.

I’m forced to use Windows on the customer’s site but I’m permitted to use WSL, which I heavily rely upon.

Even though there’s some interoperability between Windows and WSL, I can’t really use any Windows-based editor or IDE because they reset every file’s owner/group to `root:root` and its permissions to 777.

I soon found myself using Vim all the time. I feel less efficient but I accept it for not having to clean up behind Windows’s shenanigans.

2.

Server administration.

I don’t really know nano or emacs; I try to use rmate whenever I’m on a Mac client but if it’s Windows or Linux PC, what else would I use except Vim?


👤 johncoltrane
Just like it was in 2009 or 1999:

- If using Vim is a hard requirement for your job or an open source project you want to be involved with, then yes, learning Vim is important as it will help you be efficient at your job.

- If you are just curious about Vim and you are trying to justify the investment, then no, learning Vim is not important unless you fall into one of the two cases above. But who cares? Learning something out of curiosity doesn't need more justification than "this looks interesting".


👤 GRBurst
What do you mean by the term "learn"? Basic usage is helpful on a lot of linux servers (as already mentioned).

Power usage is a completely different topic, but me as a heavy vim user: I won't miss it.