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i'm a java IDE user (eclipse, then intellj).

in intellij, you can ctrl+w to select word, ctrl+w again to select statement, ctrl+w again to select function, etc.

you can also refactor replace all, shown if foo.gif actually exist in img src, ctrl+click to css, shown if a variable (in code/js/css) is unused, hinted if a line can be simplified, etc.

can vim do that?

if it can not, what's the compelling reason for people like me to use it? (i honestly interested, but wondering if it's worth the effort)

1 comments

I use Intellij (and the derivative editors RubyMine and AppCode) as well.

IMO the main advantage of vim is it's instant. No waiting for the IDE to load. IJ takes quite a while to load and you have to have your project set up.

Another major advantage of vim is it's available everywhere. SSH to your production server and edit just like you do your code.

But I have to say: I much prefer coding in the Jetbrains editors. They offer a UX that can't be matched by vim. They are just smarter, esp for statically typed language. But even dynamic - they are damn good. And you can use VIM key bindings if you like.