The moves are yours in every editor: what carries over to VS Code Vim, vscode-neovim, IdeaVim and Zed, what to set up first, and a five-minute check to run in your own editor.
Scene
Tuesday, 10:00 a.m. Time to answer last night's message from the new hire: "Which editor should I use? Does Vim mode in VS Code count?" It's a fair question, and the honest answer is: the moves are yours, in any dojo.
This lesson is a tour of the other dojos: what carries over, what to set up, and where they differ.
From memory
Warm-up from earlier chapters
Two from earlier chapters, from memory, before the new idea. Two wrong tries show the answer.
Switch this line and the two below.
press the keys…4 keys
1 of 2
Switch this line and the two below.
gc2j
The moves are yours
Almost everything in this course is the grammar: verbs and nouns (dcy with w, i", t,), counts, the stamp ., search with / and *, registers, recipe cards with q, highlights with v. Every editor below speaks that grammar. What changes from dojo to dojo is where things are kept: how you set options, map keys, and reach the clipboard.
Emulation or the real thing
Most Vim modes are emulations: VS Code Vim, JetBrains' IdeaVim and Zed's Vim mode rebuild Vim's keys on top of their own editor, so the grammar is there and the edges can differ. vscode-neovim is the other kind: it runs real Neovim inside VS Code, so Neovim's behaviour and most of your Neovim config come along. The tab below opens on your editor; the others are there if you're curious.
Where they differ
The edges are where emulations differ: less common Ex commands, some Ctrl keys (the editor may already use them), the clipboard, how much one u undoes, and plugins. You find them fastest by trying, not reading.
In your editor, try
In Vim you get
Check
Esc
Normal mode
does a popup or the editor take it first?
cw, a word, Esc, then u
the whole change undone
one change, or one letter at a time?
. on the next word
the same change again
repeated exactly?
*
the next match of the word
are matches highlighted? does n keep going?
yy then p
the line again, below
Vim's register or the system clipboard?
qa … q, then @a
the recipe card replays
does it record at all? Ctrl keys inside it?
Check yourself
The same in every dojo
0000000000
1constordr = cart.total;
NORMAL
Keys pressed: ciworderEsc
You press ciw, type order and Esc with the cursor in ordr. In which of the editors in this lesson does the line come out the same?
Pick an answer (or press its number), then watch the engine prove it.
Not quite. Verbs and text objects are the core of the grammar, and every Vim mode here speaks it: const order = cart.total; everywhere.