Practical Vim, 2nd Edition

Tip 7

Pause with Your Brush Off the Page

For those unused to Vim, Normal mode can seem like an odd default. But experienced Vim users have difficulty imagining it any other way. This tip uses an analogy to illustrate the Vim way.

How much time do you reckon artists spend with their paint brushes in contact with the canvas? No doubt it would vary from artist to artist, but I’d be surprised if it counted for as much as half of the time painters spend at work.

Think of all of the things that painters do besides paint. They study their subject, adjust the lighting, and mix paints into new hues. And when it comes to applying paint to the canvas, who says they have to use brushes? A painter might switch to a palette knife to achieve a different ...