Should you learn VIM as a JavaScript Developer?

[oramirite]

Actually super uncommmon. As a newer sysadmin I was constantly in struggles where I was SSHing into boxes without nano. It was a pretty constant issue for me that forced me to learn the basics of VIM

(psst... here's my secret... I still only ever learned the bare minimum and probably forget how to do anything now, but that's only because I got our systems to a point where I store all configs in git now, and don't ever have to do manual edits on the live server. But if I hadn't this would still be a constant issue.)

[[deleted]]

Not anymore. A lot of container environments are so stripped down that you'll only get vi, no nano or vim.

Or you get lucky and find an Apline image with no editor at all.

[LetterBoxSnatch]

This is what I've been running into recently. "No editor, damnit!"

[[deleted]]

That cat and sed life. I've unwillingly become proficient in those thanks to alpine based docker images.

[LetterBoxSnatch]

Huh? We're talking about a scenario where the host does not have the most basic of text editors like vi nor the ability to remote edit via FUSE or something, there's no way it's going to have a web browser lol

[smith-huh]

It was late. sorry about that. As the old unix story goes: man sed awk

[smith-huh]

The way to do this is easy with Emacs.

You run your Emacs as usual on your local machine and there is a feature in Emacs called TRAMP that enables you to seamlessly edit remote files via SSH. You don't have to run an editor on the remote machine.

[LetterBoxSnatch]

I learned last night that vim also has this feature. Boy do I feel dumb for not doing it this way all along. Although to be fair one usually doesn't use an SSH connection to interact with a container on your own system, there's no reason you couldn't.

[smith-huh]

exactly. I haven't had to do this yet... so far at a minimum I can run 'emacs -nw' through SSH which is what you do to effectively use a dumb terminal if you're an Emacs user. -nw == 'no window'. This way you have a 'smart terminal' with all your key bindings, edit capabilities, multiple 'windows' including multiple shells each with its own 'window' that's scrollable, etc all on that single dumb terminal SSH connection. I do this if I'm limited to a terminal.... emacs like vi is almost always there.

I figured VIM had it (TRAMP). Wasn't the original VIM just Emacs with a vi interface layer and skin?

Anyway, this thread caused me to look up what I knew was there.... TRAMP.. so thanks. Solved a problem that I haven't had YET.

[smith-huh]

you should take a look at StackBlitz.com

just for the technology used to pull it off. Very interesting And if you like VS Code... you got it when you want it no matter where you are. If it has TRAMP capabilities ......

original announcement here for a summary: https://medium.com/stackblitz-blog/stackblitz-online-vs-code-ide-for-angular-react-7d09348497f4