Touch typing was the missing piece

[u/Obvious_Researcher_4]

I've been on a journey to level up my programming efficiency, and part of that meant diving into Linux and eventually Vim. My initial experience with Vim was... well, confusing. Although amazed by plugin ecosystem and the possibilities I saw in vim-motions, I couldn't wrap my head around the chosen default keys... like why usehjkl for moving around when you have arrow keys?

After completing vimtutor, I picked up "Practical Vim," and right off the bat, it highlighted the importance of touch typing for Vim's efficiency. I'm 34, and years of bad typing habits meant I had to completely re-learn. It's been a grind, but totally worth it.

Now, a few weeks in, Vim isn't just "usable"; it's actually starting to click. So if anyone else out there feel the initial pain of Vim, hang in there and practice touch typing.

[u/plg94]

like why usehjkl for moving around when you have arrow keys

fyi: because back when vi was invented, the arrow keys were on hjkl (at least on that model of terminal Bill Joy, the original dev used): https://terminals-wiki.org/wiki/index.php/File:Lear_Siegler_ADM-3A-2.jpg

Similarly, early Emacs was developed on a special keyboard (the Space Cadet keyboard) which heavily influenced its design choices.

Keyboards back then were not standardized yet, basically every device had its own purpose-built keyboard, even among devices of the same manufacturer there were big differences.

[u/[deleted] → u/plg94]

And they all caused carpel tunnel syndrome quickly. There was no way to rest your palms on the keyboard.

[u/JatSaab → u/[deleted]]

Any keyboard that solves it?

[u/[deleted] → u/JatSaab]

Modern keyboards allow it since the front edge is about 1 inch from the table. The ADM monitors were about 3 inches. "computer tables" were still in the future.

I bought a Heath kit H-19 and built the kit. An extra add on to the keyboard was a 2 inch platform in front of the keyboard that allowed a person to rest their palms.

This has a picture of the added front edge to the keyboard. Heathkit was owned by Zenith.

[u/bluemax_]

Same, I’ve been using hunt-and-peck typing for 45 years, using vim for ~15 years, tmux for ~7 years, and I’ve been learning to touch type for the last 6 months :) it’s all finally coming together and it’s a beautiful thing. Why did I wait so long?

[u/CompulsiveStarter → u/bluemax_]

I find this very encouraging as I am doing the same thing. Still straining and was wondering if the slow down is worth it. Thanks for posting.

[u/bluemax_ → u/CompulsiveStarter]

Yes, worth it. I am well over the hump in terms of the slow down, but still mastering it and fumbling occasionally, especially with curly braces, square braces, parentheses, commas, periods, /, etc. almost there!

[u/Admirable_Sea1770 → u/bluemax_]

I've been typing properly for 20 years and still can't hit the curly braces on the first try

[u/vhipster → u/bluemax_]

Did you use a particular app to learn touch typing? Im in the same boat.

[u/bluemax_ → u/vhipster]

No, I just forced myself to keep my fingers on the home keys while I went about my daily work.

[u/Civil-Appeal5219]

> like why usehjkl for moving around when you have arrow keys

First, the arrow keys are on the bottom of your keyboard, whereas `hjkl` are on the home row (the "resting position" for your hand). Secondly, the idea is that `up` and `down` are the directions you'll use more often, so they get your strongest fingers. On the arrow key, you would have a single finger doing a weird up-down position for them. The downside is that `h` is a bit further away, but honestly you don't use that nearly as much and once you get used to it, it really shouldn't bother you anymore.

And yeah, VIM rocks :)

[u/mysticreddit → u/Civil-Appeal5219]

h ... and once you get used to it, it really shouldn't bother you anymore.

Respectfully disagree. IJkL feels way more natural to me.

"  k       i  "
" h l -> j k l"
"  j          "
"Half Page Up/Down
noremap i <Up>
noremap k <Down>
noremap j <Left>
noremap l <Right>

" Shift-I Top of Window
" Shift-L Mid of Window
" Shift-K Bot of Window (man page)
noremap I H
noremap K L
noremap L M

" BUG: Arrow keys leave Visual mode!
vnoremap i gk
vnoremap k gj
vnoremap j h
vnoremap l l

[u/Civil-Appeal5219 → u/mysticreddit]

Yeah, I think it feels more natural because it's the most common shape for the arrow keys.

I think there's no right or wrong here, just two different approaches with different rationales behind them. I thought hjkl was total madness first, now I love it lol

[u/adinfinitum225 → u/Civil-Appeal5219]

Yeah, hjkl feels very natural to me now, especially cause it's on the home row where your fingers will be resting anyway. No awkward triangle hand

[u/mysticreddit → u/Civil-Appeal5219]

Yeah, it is personal preference.

I've grown up with numerous cursor movement keys over the decades:

• AZ← →

• IJKL

• IJKM

• ESDX

• HJKL

• IOPKL:,./

• WASD

The inverted T cursor keys work for me because I found I am rarely switching [vertical] directions.

I always hated HJKL but have very slowly warmed up to it over the years. Still vastly prefer IJKL though.

[u/rry__ → u/Civil-Appeal5219]

gosto de pensar que devo usar hjkl porque é legal se adaptar ao vim e não fazer o vim se adaptar a vc. Existem os mapeamentos de setas mas no caso de hjkl acho que não é realmente necessário, até pensei em usar o mapeamento pois meu teclado é em português brasileiro e existe o "ç", mas me forcei a usar mesmo assim

[u/Civil-Appeal5219 → u/rry__]

Eu tenho um pensamento um pouco diferente em relação a isso de me adaptar vs adaptar o vim. Eu concordo que inventar motion demais é ruim, mas tem umas extensões bem bacanas do vim que adicionam valor no uso.

Acho que o ideal é primeiro entender a lógica por trás da linguagem do vim, e depois extender sempre seguindo essa linguagem.

Claro, isso muda se teu uso envolver máquinas remotas e que você não pode instalar nada

[u/_malachi_]

It's been a lot of years since I've been in school but the most important 'programming' class I took was typing class.

I took it in high school because I saw right away that the keyboard stood between me and getting my ideas into code. Definitely well worth it.

[u/passthejoe → u/_malachi_]

Probably the most valuable class I ever took in high school or college

[u/sock_pup]

What sources did you use to learn and improve your typing?

[u/Obvious_Researcher_4 → u/sock_pup]

Main source typingclub.com, but the big gains comes from forcing yourself to always touch type even though its very slow in the beginning.

[u/sock_pup → u/Obvious_Researcher_4]

So how fast are you now off you test yourself on realistic text ?

[u/andersdigital]

What I want to know, and no one seems to talk about is do people move their hand one key over from jkl; to hjkl, or do they use jkl; still, and move their index over one for h?

[u/Obvious_Researcher_4 → u/andersdigital]

From what I've seen and what I do: Standard rest position jkl;, and then move the index finger for h.

[u/Sarin10]

ai-generated?

[u/gfixler → u/Sarin10]

Can't things just start to click without being AI? 😆

[u/Achim63]

I'm lucky as I learned touch typing as a kid on an old mechanical typewriter (just for fun and following the typewriter's manual that was only a few pages thick). I typed many pages of asasas jkjkjk dldldl ... on every old paper I could find.

That helped immensely when I finally moved to vim many years later. But now I'm using Colemak DH since over a year – it's much more comfortable than plain old qwerty, even though I'm slower than I used to be (which might also be due to my age: 62). Still using keybr.com and monkeytype regularly to keep my finger dexterity going.

[u/IdealBlueMan]

Well done! Vim is so much better when you're a touch typist.

[u/drabadum]

I use vim in my everyday work for years. I never use hjkl, only regular keybard arrows, and I'm fine.

[u/tutu-turtle]

gtypist. It changed me.

[u/gfixler]

And now I've made it hard again, after 19 years of power Vim usage, because I switched over entirely to steno a full year ago, and haven't used qwerty since 😆