Comment by eviks
1 year ago
> While it is relatively simple to learn the magic exit incantation, it’s certainly not a coincidence that this often turns up as a stumbling block for new and old programmers.
What’s even simpler is changing the awful defaults and adding the menu to make this a non-issue at a tiny fraction of the time it would take to write a new editor.
> we decided that we wanted a modeless editor for Windows (versus a modal editor where new users would have to remember different modes of operation and how to switch between them)
New users could do everything in insert mode with the power of modes always in the background. Also you don’t need to remember how to switch as you can just show those key binds in either your menu or status bar if you think it’s very important, there is plenty of space looking at the screenshots
Such a wasted opportunity to use something powerful and extensible for rather flimsy reasons
New users accidentally end up in the wrong mode because they press the wrong key, and then get stuck because they don't know what a "mode" is.
There's really no reason for a basic lightweight text editor to have modes. If you as a power user want one, Vim can be installed as needed.
> they press the wrong key
No they wouldn't, if you believe there are so many terminal editor users that can't be taught what modes are, you simply guard it via settings so that unless you enable it explicitly you can't press the wrong key
> There's really no reason for a basic lightweight text editor to have modes
There is - having the power in every single Windows installation, including all the VMs and other people's machines.