How? NeoVim editing…
1. Get a Linux server running on your Windows PC.
2. Start using Python in Linux Jupyter Notebooks.
3. Start writing daily journal entries in NeoVim.
NeoVim is the latest in a line of editors going back to the rise of computers. vi, vim & NeoVim are battle hardened, everywhere and not going away. Text editing muscle memory pays off.
Master Editing by Journaling in NeoVim
There is one key skill in tech and life: editing text files. All tech is text and all text is editable. To edit text anywhere under any conditions as comfortably as breathing — is to master your life. Use it to journal daily for greater mindfulness and intention. Don’t let shifty editors destroy your muscle memory.
Who Works This Way?
Many do. Take Ed for example. Ed, the single line-ed(itor) was born August 1969 for Unix, written by Ken Thompson. The primitive line editor grew into the full-screen editor QED which in 1976 grew into another full-screen editor vi, which is now part of the Unix and Linux standards… and is everywhere!
The vi editor is the ultimate example of “good enough” becoming too good to be true. It was written for a time and place where computing resources were limited and every keystroke mattered. That gives us what today feels like telepathic text-control, once it’s “in your fingers”. Get into the vim zone.
Vim? I thought you said vi. Yes, in 1991 Bram Moolenaar iMproved vi(M) and released it as Public Domain software on Amiga Fred Fish #591 introducing the world to a secret technique only Unix geeks understood: forever improve at that one tool in your life that shouldn’t plan your obsolescence, NeoVim.
NeoVim? I thought you said vim. Yes, Bram Moolenaar just passed on August 3, 2023 (I dedicate this project to hiM), but what Ken, Bill Joy (creator of vi) and Bram started, the free and open source community (FOSS) and Thiago de Arruda in particular carried on as NeoVim. NeoVim support AI.
What Is Your Goal?
Your goal is to learn programming, right? Nope! Your goal is to learn to edit text-files naturally and under any conditions — like the editor is an extension of your body. The next goal is then to protect that muscle memory against sudden disruption by planned obsolescence. Nobody should have the ability to take this hard-won internal asset away from you, but this is precisely what happens by design with profit-driven software.
VSCode is okay, but how many times in your life can you afford to go through the 10,000 hours it takes to master the next editor, macro-system and all? If you’re on profit-driven software (TextMate, Sublime, etc.), be ready for a few decades of your life going down the drain to chase the shiny new toy. Plus, the main reason for VSCode is to get you using Microsoft services.
You might hear that all the benefits of vim/NeoVim can be had in VSCode, especially the legendary vim key bindings that makes editing text files a pleasure. Untrue! You have to constantly take your hands away from the keyboard to use the mouse and the arrow keys in VSCode. VSCode is a Web user interface. There’s no getting away from the mouse. It’s a trap.
And finally, you might hear that you’ll end up wasting your time customizing vim/NeoVim to be just right — a huge time-sink. But the truth is, you don’t really need any plug-in’s at all. To serve you best for life, just master vim/NeoVim as it comes out of the box. Maybe just make a few tweaks to the configuration file. That’s it. You’re done. Forever.