I partially learnt Vim some 20 years ago, but at some point stopped taking in new commands (possibly for lack of repetitive use), and am stuck in a sort of 'good enough' zone, but still awkward for certain things; the ctrl-c/v thing always throws me as I use windows primarily, gvim makes it easy to cheat using the GUI, so I do. Macros are amazing, but I feel there are probably easier ways of achieving most of the things I use them for (they, and regex search/replace are most if what I use Vim for outside of writing code).
You get over it if you use it enough. For me its now the opposite. For a while
I keep accidentally trying to do Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V, but now I find myself trying to
go into Visual mode or Normal mode in programs that dont support that.
I started off with a bunch of mappings, then you can remove them as you get
comfortable. Now I only really have mapped "nmap H :nohlsearch<CR>" and "xmap S
:sort<CR>".
Whats really tricky is using Vim without the Arrow keys. Normally I am on a
desktop so it doesnt matter, but when I use a laptop it makes more sense to use
HJKL. Again its just something that you need to force yourself to do or you wont
get comfortable with it.
HJKL makes no sense for me at all. It reminds me of the annoyingly designed computer games I used to play on my Oric as a kid, where the various direction keys to control my 'character' often bore no relation to their relative positions on the keyboard.
H and L are just about OK for left and right, but up and down being another left/right positioned key combo, nestled in between, just doesn't work with the way my brain's wired, at all.
Conversely, on my MacBook Air keyboard, the arrow keys are nicely grouped together in an inverted T formation at bottom right corner of the keyboard, with some space around them. Piss-easy to find and piss-easy to feel which one points in which direction, without even looking at the keyboard.
Strange that almost every tutorial on Vim I've ever read begins with "Don't be tempted to use the arrow keys instead of HJKL.." which, in my opinion is just about the "worst advice evarrr!", especially given the rest of the learning curve which awaits you.
*YMMV --depending on your own particular keyboard layout.
I agree that HJKL is really uncomfortable for a new user. I still reverse J and K sometime, as my brain thinks "the first key should be Up".
I guess the thinking is, if you open up some existing document, youre already at the top, so the more important key is going down, which the "J" sits right under your index finger.
I totally agree that its awkward, but I also feel that if you can get good with it, youll be way faster than using the arrow keys. Think about it like this: with the arrow keys, you must move your hand. With HJKL, you dont have to move your hand from the home row.
I think the "not moving your hands from the home row" is another relic of a bygone era. It dates back to when people were taught to touch type and that was the starting position. It also dates from a time when keys had to be pressed with some force. Resting your fingers on the keys with a modern laptop keyboard, you're in danger of accidentally typing characters you didn't want to.
I can type pretty fast, though I've never actually measured my WPM speed. But I'm not a touch typist --I still have to look at the keys-- and I don't type 'properly' using all my fingers. I seem to get by with the first three on each hand. So there's no real advantage for me in having my fingers resting on the home row. In pauses for thought [my equivalent of resting on the home row] I usually find I'm waiting with the heels of my hands on the empty space below the keyboard, either side of the trackpad and my fingers just kind of very lightly touching the keys, wherever they happen to fall.
From that position, it really is far more convenient for me to just curl in the fingers of my right hand , which puts the inverted T of the cursor keys right under my finger tips and which I can do without looking, than it is for me to look down at the keys to find HJKL.
