Flexibility, configurability, work in the terminal, oh... and did I mention snipmate?
That's just scratching the surface. I've been using VIM for around 3 years. Most of the day almost every day. And I feel like I'm barely acquainted with what it can do. Still, it is one of the most important and vital work tools and its hard to imagine life without it. I'm pretty sure I would leave any job I wasn't allowed to use it.
Admittedly I went through a rough month or two getting started, but I could see right away that the potential gains in productivity were worth the cost and I'm glad I did. Sort of like learning to type which some people refuse to do because hunting and pecking is faster and easier short term. I'm sure you have seen people like this. And some actually type at amazing speeds for two fingers, but it doesn't compare with what they could do if they took the time to retrain themselves.
The problem now is that Vim is so ingrained in muscle memory I type splotch all over any other editor and web browser I touch. Hold on a second, I need to arrow back and clean up this comment... bbbbhhh
That's just scratching the surface. I've been using VIM for around 3 years. Most of the day almost every day. And I feel like I'm barely acquainted with what it can do. Still, it is one of the most important and vital work tools and its hard to imagine life without it. I'm pretty sure I would leave any job I wasn't allowed to use it.
Admittedly I went through a rough month or two getting started, but I could see right away that the potential gains in productivity were worth the cost and I'm glad I did. Sort of like learning to type which some people refuse to do because hunting and pecking is faster and easier short term. I'm sure you have seen people like this. And some actually type at amazing speeds for two fingers, but it doesn't compare with what they could do if they took the time to retrain themselves.
The problem now is that Vim is so ingrained in muscle memory I type splotch all over any other editor and web browser I touch. Hold on a second, I need to arrow back and clean up this comment... bbbbhhh