matthewfranglen · April 17, 2015 19:56 · Apr 17, 2015
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+The core idea of Vim is the very essence of the Unix Philosophy:
+
+> Even though the UNIX system introduces a number of innovative programs and
+> techniques, no single program or idea makes it work well. Instead, what makes
+> it effective is the approach to programming, a philosophy of using the
+> computer. Although that philosophy can't be written down in a single sentence,
+> at its heart is the idea that the power of a system comes more from the
+> relationships among programs than from the programs themselves. Many UNIX
+> programs do quite trivial things in isolation, but, combined with other
+> programs, become general and useful tools.
+
+https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy#The_UNIX_Programming_Environment
+
+So there will be no neat trick or single feature that makes Vim the best
+editor. The reason it is the best is because of the infinite composability of
+the tools that it provides to you. Those tools form a language which you can
+use to describe the process of editing text.
+
+These tools can be broadly split into the following areas:
+
+* Movement
+* Change
+* Reference
+* Replay
+
+The very beginning of using Vim is about learning to move and learning to
+change.
+
+Most people start by learning the arrow keys (spit), i, <esc>, x and :wq. In
+this proto state they are no better than they were when using cheapest nastiest
+oldest text editor available.
+
+If they stick with it then they can start to learn about the different ways to
+move - by word (wb), by paragraph ({}), to the start or end of a line (0^$), by
+page (ctrl-u, ctrl-d), by searching (tTfF/?), and the different ways to change
+(too numerous to list but at the very least c/C/d/D/dd/a/i and perhaps an ex
+command like :s). They should have started on the use of references by yanking
+(y/yy/d etc) and pasting (pP) and possibly even using the '.' replay operator.
+Now they have matched their old editor.
+
+These initial stages feel like failures, but not because they just don't have
+enough tools to compose well. It is perfectly possible to edit text like this.
+If you stuck at this point then it would be a mystery why Vim was rated so
+highly, as everything you could achieve in Vim could be achieved in another
+editor (and probably faster too).
+
+Macros are probably the first really amazing thing that Vim offers. They may be
+the single feature you want so to show off.
+
+They are the first multiplier that Vim offers. If you can move well and edit
+using appropriate actions then your macros will be more powerful. A macro
+should be treated as a template of the change you wish to make to the document.
+When you run that macro you apply that template to your current situation. With
+this you move from editing text to transforming text.
+
+Macros themselves can be composed with other commands. You can run a macro over
+every line of a visual selection, and you can repeat a macro.
+
+At this point Vim is very strong. As a programmer you are unique in that you
+get to deal with highly structured yet differing text on a constant basis. With
+Vim macros you can express only the differences that the final text will posses
+and then transform the text into it's final form.
+
+For example: A Java POJO class has a name, a constructor and some fields with
+getter and setter methods. The only thing that needs to be expressed is the
+names of those things. Once you have them you are able to generate the rest of
+the code using macros. I would probably have one macro that created the class
+(with constructor) from the class name and one macro that created a field,
+getter and setter from a field name.
+
+Now there are IDEs that can do that sort of thing. They have a special built in
+button that might as well be labelled "Make Rocket Go Now". With Vim you
+composed the macro by doing the thing you wanted to one single time and
+recording it.
+
+The real magic of Vim comes with the last two stages. However those phases
+would be empty without the full range of movement and change already available.
+
+
+The realisation of the power of these is somewhat parallel to the way a young
+programmer might transition from "I have code and it operates on data" to "code
+is data and data is code and I can apply the same techniques to both".
+
+Commands are text and text is commands
+(I has grammars, yes)
+
+When you yank, you yank into a register. You can reuse that text in many ways.
+When you record a macro what you type is written directly to a register. You
+can play a macro to repeat the actions.
+
+If you ever feel like becoming insane then start pasting macros and editing
+them. Then yank text and run it as a macro. These final techniques are beyond
+what any other editor could really dream of. They are also beyond my
+comprehension really. The best thing is for them to be locked up in utilities
+and tools. The ctags (see :help ctags) tool is such a thing. That creates a
+tagfile which contains all notable references in your code (things like class
+and method names) and describes how to reach them by writing a macro that will
+take you there.
+
+I believe that vim macros make the process of editing text in vim turing
+complete. I present the following demonstration:
+
+To run this do the following.
+ * Copy the text below into a new vim buffer
+ * Move to the first line and yank it with yy
+ * Execute that with @"
+
+j0"ay$jj@a
+ihello
+
+This adds a 'hello' to the page. The hello is contained in register a, however
+you ran the default register ("). This means that a macro can trigger another
+macro. You cannot do this normally when recording a macro as pressing q or @
+will stop the macro.
+
+To run this do the following.
+ * Copy the text below into a new vim buffer
+ * Move to the first line and yank it with yy
+ * Execute that with @"
+
+j0"ay$majj@a
+'aj0"by$''@b
+ihello
+
+This also adds a 'hello' to the page. The hello is contained in register b.
+This shows that macros can invoke macros which invoke macros. How deep does the
+rabbit hole go?
+
+j0"ay$j"byy@a
+"bp@a
+hello
+
+
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