Ok you might be a little crazy for using vim in 2024 :D but it depends on the context. Editing a quick config file from command line? Sure. Working on a big project? No way, give me an IDE with real navigation and auto complete functionality.
I think part of the reason is just that the barrier to entry for software development continues to drop with IDEs, dependency/package managers, etc. It’s really easy to get a working knowledge of your tools without knowing how they really work under the hood, which is good and bad.
Vim can have “real navigation,” I have a plugin installed that lets me jump to method/class/variable definitions, and it works really well. The interaction is certainly different (IMO better, I just hit “gd” and I’m there), but I’m able to get the features my coworkers like from whatever IDE they have with a few minutes of installing a plugin and editing some configs.
I’ve tried IDEs and editors, and honestly, I’m much more productive with my vim setup. Most of my time is spent reading and navigating code, and that’s really nice w/ Vim. To each their own, but everyone should master the tools they use, and I find myself having to help other devs with their own configs (e.g. the Python plugin by default in VSCode ignores most type errors, and we use optional types everywhere and they’re wrong more often than not…).
So yeah, I’m pretty sad that many new devs these days don’t really understand their tools, and sometimes don’t even understand the platform they’re using because their IDE handwaves it away. I suppose that’s good for me as a senior engineer because I can provide value fixing the random issues the other devs can’t, but it does make me sad that maybe, just maybe, AI will have a chance at eliminating so many jobs because the average dev doesn’t dig much deeper than the average AI does. I’m not too worried about my job, but I am worried that I’m going to have to fire people because a machine is better at their job than them…
Ok you might be a little crazy for using vim in 2024 :D but it depends on the context. Editing a quick config file from command line? Sure. Working on a big project? No way, give me an IDE with real navigation and auto complete functionality.
I think part of the reason is just that the barrier to entry for software development continues to drop with IDEs, dependency/package managers, etc. It’s really easy to get a working knowledge of your tools without knowing how they really work under the hood, which is good and bad.
Vim can have “real navigation,” I have a plugin installed that lets me jump to method/class/variable definitions, and it works really well. The interaction is certainly different (IMO better, I just hit “gd” and I’m there), but I’m able to get the features my coworkers like from whatever IDE they have with a few minutes of installing a plugin and editing some configs.
I’ve tried IDEs and editors, and honestly, I’m much more productive with my vim setup. Most of my time is spent reading and navigating code, and that’s really nice w/ Vim. To each their own, but everyone should master the tools they use, and I find myself having to help other devs with their own configs (e.g. the Python plugin by default in VSCode ignores most type errors, and we use optional types everywhere and they’re wrong more often than not…).
So yeah, I’m pretty sad that many new devs these days don’t really understand their tools, and sometimes don’t even understand the platform they’re using because their IDE handwaves it away. I suppose that’s good for me as a senior engineer because I can provide value fixing the random issues the other devs can’t, but it does make me sad that maybe, just maybe, AI will have a chance at eliminating so many jobs because the average dev doesn’t dig much deeper than the average AI does. I’m not too worried about my job, but I am worried that I’m going to have to fire people because a machine is better at their job than them…