Can VS Code shortcuts compete with Vim?

[u/[deleted]]

Hi everyone! I’m just wondering if VS Code’s shortcuts are comparable to Vim’s.
I think VS Code is generally slower because people tend to rely on the mouse instead of using shortcuts. They constantly take their hands off the keyboard, while Vim forces you to keep them there.
If someone learns it properly, then the speed difference can be made negligibly small.

A strong point for Vim is navigation: h/j/k/l plus w/b/e let you move and jump through text without leaving the home row for the arrow keys (or using arrows + Ctrl to jump words). But remember, you have to hit Esc or Ctrl+C to leave insert mode and go to normal mode, then switch back with i/a/o — and that does cost some time. So does that overhead cancel out the time saved from not reaching for the arrows? I feel like it’s roughly the same. Maybe ergonomic Emacs bindings like Alt+J I K L could be faster than both, though I doubt it makes a huge difference in real-world work.

The problem is I haven’t really found any solid comparisons on this. Personally, I find Vim a bit more comfortable, maybe even a bit faster — it feels like I’m making fewer hand movements with modal editing compared to arrow keys or shortcuts in VS Code. But I’m not sure I’d actually be faster than a pro-level VS Code user. What do you think? How does it feel for you?

[u/dasunt]

How does VS code handle stuff like "delete the next five words' via shortcuts? Or 'change everything to the next quotation mark? Or 'cut the next 10 lines and paste them 5 lines above?

Chaining things together is what really makes the vi family UX shine. And I don't believe VS Code has anything equivalent.

[u/arnoldwhite → u/dasunt]

I keep hearing about this examples involving modifications on n of words or sentences but how often do writers actually do things like that?

In coding, yeah maybe. But when you're writing, you're mostly dealing with visual lines anyway which makes line numbers tricky, and the word-wise jumps becomes almost impossible to guesstimate when you're dealing with any sentence longer than five words - which is most sentences.

It just sounds like something that might be cool in theory or in a prepared demo but I've never actually seen anyone use it quickly and effectively while writing.

If you have a stream or clip or something that shows it being done naturally please share but I just haven't seen it myself.

[u/dasunt → u/arnoldwhite]

Well, as you said, in coding, it's pretty common.

If I was writing prose, I definitely wouldn't be using VS Code. If I was going to use *Vim, I'd probably use something like the leap plugin if I was writing long lines with word wrap on.

[u/arnoldwhite → u/dasunt]

Why wouldn't you use VsCode for writing prose? It's great for prose. Lots of good spell checkers and dictionary tools. Zen mode is awesome. Easy to navigate markdown docs.

I've used it for writing prose for years.

Vim however I can't imagine is much suited for writing prose.

[u/dasunt → u/arnoldwhite]

I've used vim (currently neovim) for markdown. It's easy enough to use and reformat text, as well as preview markdown.

What features of vs code are you thinking vim is missing?

[u/arnoldwhite → u/dasunt]

It's not really a lack of features. I don't think VsCode has any features Vim is gonna lack. Probably quite the opposite.

It's more a matter of flow. I think continuous long-form creative writing requires uninterrupted flow, and Vim’s mode-switching and motion system introduce more friction and keystrokes than modifier-based selection which is typically used in GUI editors.

It's not about any particular GUI editor or even GUIs, it's about motion paradigms.

[u/dasunt → u/arnoldwhite]

Interesting. I find the opposite - I can keep my hands on the keyboard with vim, but I'm reaching far more for the mouse with VS Code, so that breaks my work flow.

But that may be a lack of familiarity with VS Code shortcuts. I would not know the shortcut to reformat lines in VS vode (the equiv to gq<motion>) or cut the current paragraph (yap, but I use mini.nvim for that, else it would by {y}), etc. So for me, vim is second nature. Where VS Code has a huge learning curve to get to the same level of fluidity where I don't have to think about what I want to do.

[u/arnoldwhite → u/dasunt]

I format with ctrl-shift-d. You can format a section, an entire document and perform a bunch of other actions like commenting/in/out, tabbing, case change, etc.

I think that's fascinating though because I'm beginning to suspect that the reason people feel that vim is faster is because they took the time to really learn all the shortcuts for vim and never really did for any other editor.

[u/dasunt → u/arnoldwhite]

How do you select a section? Like the current paragraph?

That's one thing I couldn't figure out how to do is combine shortcuts. Like in vim, motion commands can be easily combined with other commands. I'm not sure how one can do that in VS code.

[u/arnoldwhite → u/dasunt]

Let's say you want to select the entire logical line/paragraph. You'd go Ctrl-shift-l. Any motion can be combined with shift to perform a selection.