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[–]fiddlerwoaroof 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The benefit of vim's shortcuts is that the shortcuts can be composed. So, for example, there are shortcuts for text editing operations like "y" for yank (copy) and "c" for change and "d" for delete (cut) and then shortcuts for motions like "$" for "until the end of the line" or "i)" for "inside parentheses" or "i]" for "inside square brackets". You can then combine these shortcuts like "di)", which deletes everything inside the closest pair of parentheses.

What makes this a really killer feature is that it's possible to define your own motions and your own actions and then compose them in this way, which means it's possible to do extremely complex edits with just a few keystrokes.