diff --git a/src/content/blog/2024-02-25-using-vim-again-or-how-the-tool-shapes-the-work.md b/src/content/blog/2024-02-25-using-vim-again-or-how-the-tool-shapes-the-work.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cd617a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/blog/2024-02-25-using-vim-again-or-how-the-tool-shapes-the-work.md @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ +--- +title: 'Using Vim again, or: how the tool shapes the work.' +date: 2024-02-25T11:54:47.344Z +slug: 2024-02-25-using-vim-again-or-how-the-tool-shapes-the-work +author: Thomas Wilson + +--- +I don't know, man, every ninth moon cycle something comes over me and asks +"remember how you learned software engineering using vim and rails and that was +sort of it?" + +That time has come, all aboard Steam Train Vim. + +Specifically, I found [Lazy Vim](https://www.lazyvim.org/), a neovim setup, +which I am configuring with [lua](https://www.lua.org/), a scripting language +I've never used before. + +I am already learning stuff ! + +It's _wild_ how much I learned about making software without Intellisense (or +language servers), integrated test runners, refactoring tools, copilot +autocomplete. + +I wrote a lot of my doctorate in plaintext files in vim. + +I did a lot of my foundational thinking and building work as an engineer here, +in vim. + +But I feel weird that the layer between "me" and the thing that runs my +software is quite chunky. + +And the software I interracted with became more and more like the big and +chunky codebases that these tools excel at. I became a professional software +engineer, I guess. + +Alongside, maybe because of, this - the act of writing software has become +something chunky. It has become a proper-noun Activity. + +I _love_ the JetBrains suite of tools. I do not want to stop using them. They +are so good. + +But the spirit of rebellion, of _actually_ hacking away on a computer became +something I don't really do any more. + +I am familiar enough with the commandline that it's not magic. I hand-wavy know +what's happening. But I think there's a feedback loop here: I only see things +done with bash, sed, awk (and friends) when either i) it is a trivial example, +or ii) a "hacky but it works" solution that no one's touched since 2012. + +The promise of Vim from every Vim-huckster was that you could _edit code at the +speed of thought_. It's an appealing idea, but most of the time I am not +limited by typing speed, I'm limited by thinking speed (and quality). + +Problems are just hard sometimes. And [for over a century +now](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/02/09/efficient/), we've known there's +no point in optimising for: + +> systemic ways of doing things which need not be done at all. + +Anyway, maybe I'll do something with it (cool), or maybe in seven days I +realise present/past Wilson is/was being too idealistic and not pragmatic +enough. + +Whatever, I'm writing this in Vim and I'm having a great time. \ No newline at end of file