Inviting all to an introduction to the VIM Editor
Tired of those elitist VIM-using friends teasing you? Or just wondering what all the fuss is about? Or perhaps you’ve tried to use it once but it was way too complicated for you? Let a reluctant VIM user introduce you to the world of one of the most popular editor for serious programmers. We’ll start off with the basics of the textmode editor, explain why basic VIM skills are essential to budding hackers, and why you’ll be exponentially more productive using VIM over your current tool. You’ll leave this presentation with basic VIM skills and some resources on how to continue leveling up.
About VIM
Short for Vi IMproved, VIM is a “highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing” (http://www.vim.org/). Though primarily a textmode editor that you can use in your console or over ssh, a gui version is also available. Both lightweight and powerful, VIM is the tool of choice for many a programmer even on systems that could handle a more (supposedly) modern editor with all the bells and whistles.
The thing about VIM is the barrier to entry. A lot of people have issue working with the strongly modal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_(computer_interface)) paradigm and have a tough time remembering all the commands. This presentation aims to provide you with the tools and techniques to overcome this barrier as well as the motivation to want to undertake this seemingly daunting task.
About the Presentation Content
- Quick Basic Remedial VIM Skills (bare necessities to be able to edit and save). If you pay attention to anything, or leave remembering anything it will be this.
- Why some programmers choose VIM
- Introduction to VIM usage
- Peek into the features that lie ahead
About You, the participant
You are a programmer, or hobbyist coder, or server admin, or anyone that edits text files a lot. You have no experience with VIM (or the only experience you have with it ended badly) and prefer something more understandable (like nano). You’re interested in knowing why a lot of your programmer friends swear by VIM and seemingly move text around with just a few keystrokes. You are awesome.
About Presenter
Shu Zong Chen is a full time pythonista and freelance designer, who used to live day to day in nano. He actually dislikes VIM, but begrudgingly uses it because out of all the editors available he is by far the MOST productive in VIM. This fact makes him the best person to introduce VIM to the person that is having trouble getting pass the initial VIM barrier.
Instructions to Oceanit:
Oceanit (http://www.oceanit.com/) has graciously provided their conference rooms for us to use for our very first meetup. They are located at 828 Fort Street in Downtown Honolulu. (Google Maps) Parking to Oceanit is on Queen St. If you’re coming down Bishop, take a right on Queen, and the entrance will be on your right after a wide crosswalk. (If you hit Harbor Court, you’ve gone too far). It’s $2 dollars for parking through Park & Pay on each floor.