The reason it’s so popular is because it provides directional navigation on the home row, with the direction that’s by far the most common (down) under your strongest, dominant finger (the index finger).
It’s much better for both efficiency and ergonomics than arrow keys.
I know I’m just a vim-less heathen, but using letters for navigation in a text editor seems kind stupid when arrows exist.
No, you’re 100% right. The only reason it’s this way is this: https://pikuma.com/blog/origins-of-vim-text-editor
These literally were the arrow keys on the machine that vim was originally developed on.
Why the hell didn’t they go with JIKL or something instead then, so the pattern at least resembles the direction it navigates?
Wasd was revolutionary at the time
This really just shows how fundamentally terrible product developers engineers are.
I remember going from using Z/X/C+mouse2 for left/backpedal/right+forward WASD was such an adjustment
so your finges dont have to leave the home row. Its acually peak when you used hjkl for some time
You should boycott vim. That’ll teach 'em.
The reason it’s so popular is because it provides directional navigation on the home row, with the direction that’s by far the most common (down) under your strongest, dominant finger (the index finger).
It’s much better for both efficiency and ergonomics than arrow keys.
moving my hand this much SUCKS