First of all. This is not another “how do I exit vim?” shitpost.
I’ve been using (neo)vim for about two years and I started to notice, that I,m basically unable to use non-vim editors. I do not code a lot, but I write a lot of markown. I’d like to use dedicated tools for this, but their vim emulators are so bad. So I’m now stuck with my customized neovim, devoid of any hope of abandoning this strange addiction.
Any help or advice?
I don’t know understand why you need markdown, but if you are so used to vim motions why not switch to latex instead. You wouldn’t have to worry about katex support as well. This is an advice solely based on your need for katex support without understanding your needs.
You have to practice switching between neovim and other editors.
You have forgotten how to use a normal editor. I am not making it up, it is a real phenomenon. Similar to when SmarterEveryDay learned to ride a backwards bicycle he forgot how to ride a normal bicycle and essentially had to re-learn it. You have to re-learn how to use a normal editor.
The trick is do the opposite, namely bring vim everywhere, e.g using Tridactyl you can bring some behaviors to the browser and, in this very textarea from lemmy, if I press Ctrl+i I get gvim, when I exit it, the content is back in the textarea and I can reply. Vim everywhere.
With neovim you can even put vim in the textarea.
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Thanks for sharing back such detailed instructions! I hope you will like it and inspire other to try. I’ve been using it for years now https://fabien.benetou.fr/Tools/Tridactyl after Vimperator and really enjoy browsing this way.
I unfortunately deleted this comment, before seeing your reply. I thought it was too complicated for an comment. So I ended up creating a dedicated tutorial post based on that reply in Linux and Firefox communities.
lol, yes I just saw that :D No worries, thanks for sharing it there then!
I alternate between helix and vim depending on the task, and their key bindings are kind of opposite from each other in a lot of ways. I’ve found that switching back and forth has kept me on my toes a bit and I don’t feel as locked in to one editor as I did with vim before trying helix.
So I’m now stuck with my customized neovim, devoid of any hope of abandoning this strange addiction.
I would also try getting used to the defaults or a minimal config, which is also a good way to feel at home in the editor regardless of the system
Accept your fate. VIM is love. VIM is life.
Do you just need to write markdown? Plenty of text editors have a vim mode. Not sure if there’s any lightweight ones that do the markdown preview alongside a vim mode; I know IntelliJ-based IDEs have a vim mode and can preview markdown, but that’s not exactly a lightweight solution, and only the community edition is open source.
But also what exactly is it you’re looking for that Vim can’t do? I use Vim for writing pretty much everything. I use Vim for markdown and it works fine. Markdown is already pretty readable as a text file so I don’t feel the need for a previewer or anything like a rich text editor (but also there are plenty of markdown editors out there if you just want to edit markdown in a RTE).
You save and shut down, silly.
Why do you want stop using Vim in the first place? That would be a good information to have, to give help. What dedicated tools do you mean? What do they offer that you miss in Vim? If you just hate Vim and want stop using it no matter what, the only solution is to uninstall it, to not fall into those habits of using it everywhere. Over time you should get used to those other editors and tools.
Switch to GUI editors with Word-like navigation. You will struggle but eventually your vim habits will fade away and then you will be able to use any editor with slightly various levels of performance.
Some IDE’s have a VIM mode.
This is what I do. The IDEA tools (InteliJ, PyCharm, etc.) have pretty good vim support.
:q!
Get a thinkpad or a keyboard with a trackpoint. Your life gets a little bit better.
I rarely even use my trackpoint ngl
You could consider markdown extensions that helps you write and visualize!
Like this one: https://github.com/MeanderingProgrammer/render-markdown.nvim
I don’t know if this will work for you, and I’m not sure if you’re only looking for TUI editors, but Obsidian has vi key bindings and a lot of plugins.
Disclaimer: I have not tried the vi key bindings in Obsidian.
Another one I use is vscode. It has a ton of markdown plugins and vi key bindings. It also has a nice preview window.
Obsidian should not be suggested for general use without the disclaimer that you have to pay if you use it for any work in most cases (unless you work for a very small place or a non-profit). I think their license is probably one of the most unintentionally violated around, kind of can’t believe they’re on flathub.
Commercial use means using Obsidian for revenue-generating or work-related activities within a for‑profit organization that has two or more employees. Government departments and agencies are considered commercial use, unless registered as a non-profit organization.
Excellent point. I had forgotten about this. I work for a non profit so I’m ok, but yes you should absolutely check the terms of the license before using. On the upside, almost everything is markdown files in regular folders, so you can fall back to vim anytime.
First of all. This is not another “how do I exit vim?” shitpost.
Oh, I see, so just a clickbait! 👎
