Does Knowing Vim Negatively Affect Your Typing Outside of Vim?

Much of the time, my Vim proficiency has no impact on my typing outside of Vim. The reason is that all of the Vim keybindings I know are operational in Vim's normal mode, where the cursor covers the character it's on, distinguishable from the thin blinking line found in insert mode. Typically, I can type with ease, treating it like I'm in Vim's insert mode. It's relatively simple to remember that these keybindings won't work outside of Vim.

Specific Scenarios Where Vim Knowledge Affects Typing

However, I've encountered specific scenarios where my Vim knowledge impacts my typing, particularly in environments that mimic Vim. For example, during a remote coding interview on Coderpad, I had set up Vim keybindings, which included a popular recommendation to map jk in insert mode to ESC. This mapping led to frequent issues. Each time I typed some code and realized I wanted to leave insert mode, I mistakenly pressed jk, mistakenly thinking it would take me out of insert mode, only to discover it just typed "jk" characters and required a retraction to correct it. This was both frustrating and led to confusion for the interview's moderator. After learning about Ctrl[ as the correct way to exit insert mode in Coderpad, I removed this mapping from my Vim configuration and adopted the more intuitive Ctrl[.

Since then, I've avoided adding keybindings in insert mode, recognizing how they might interfere with my natural typing outside of Vim. Additionally, I strive to keep my Vim configuration minimal to minimize the adoption of non-standard keybindings, reducing the risk of such disruptive scenarios.

Vi Emulations in Popular Code Editors

Many modern code editors offer Vim-like environments to enhance efficiency and productivity. Let's explore some of the more popular options:

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code has a robust Vim extension that enables Vim users to work within the editor.

Komodo

Komodo supports Vim emulation as part of its feature set, as detailed in the Komodo 11 Documentation.

Atom

Atom has the vim-mode-plus package to mimic Vim's keybindings.

Eclipse and NetBeans

Eclipse offers Vrapper for Vim-like editing, while NetBeans features the JavaVi plugin for Vi/Vim editing.

These tools indicate a significant trend towards Vim keybindings in both modern and legacy code editors, making them indispensable for developers working in Vim-like environments. The efficient keybindings are now universally accessible, which can greatly enhance typing efficiency and productivity.

Therefore, knowing Vim can only positively affect your typing in most cases, as it can now be applied consistently across various editing environments. Whether you're working on a remote system or in a local editor, Vim keybindings can streamline your workflow.