Aug 24, 2016 · Nobe4's answer is great, and explains why we use hjkl very well. However, it's really interesting to see the full keyboard, and a lot of strange things about vim make more sense when you can see the full keyboard it was designed on. For example, why does vi rely so heavily on the esc key, when it's in such a weird and uncomfortable place? This ...

Jun 16, 2023 · Vi used hjkl because its creator's keyboard didn't have physical cursor keys. Instead, the arrows were printed on the hjkl keys. The arrow keys were printed on hjkl because the corresponding control codes all moved the cursor in directions roughly similar to the cursor keys: ^H for "backspace, ^J for "line feed", ^K for "upline", and ^L for ...

Jul 29, 2012 · The thing is that you start out using the "hjkl" key just as a slightly better way to move your cursor, but the truth is that they are actually motions. h motions one character left; j motions one line down; k motions one line up; l motions one character right

Aug 18, 2015 · In short, Vim uses the hjkl keys as the navigation interface is because it's a remnant of the old "ADM-3A" terminal, that had these keys marked with arrows. Since vim is derived from vi, it uses the same hjkl keys. New Habits

Jul 5, 2017 · (The same is true in a couple of other places, for instance you can use left/right arrows to move around within a command or search/replace you are typing, but you cannot use hjkl for movement in those cases.) There is one other difference, I suppose - since they are separate keys, they can be mapped to separate things.

Nov 12, 2021 · Vi used hjkl because its creator's keyboard didn't have physical cursor keys. Instead, the arrows were printed on the hjkl keys. The arrow keys were printed on hjkl because the corresponding control codes all moved the cursor in directions roughly similar to the cursor keys: ^H for "backspace, ^J for "line feed", ^K for "upline", and ^L for ...

Nov 3, 2014 · hjkl are only marginally better than the arrows while Vim's more advanced motions, bBeEwWfFtT,;/?^$ and so on, offer a huge advantage over the arrows and hjkl. FWIW, I use the arrows for small movements, in normal and insert mode, …

Jul 7, 2015 · The "use hjkl keys, arrow keys are evil"-dogma is a strong one in the Vi/Vim community, but in many ways it's also a silly one. Aside from the fact that I'm not at all convinced it is actually faster in all scenarios, even if it would be, is …

Jan 11, 2013 · Possible Duplicate: VimTutor arrow keys v/s hjkl Why "hjkl" is highly recommended? I think it's more convenice using arrow key. Is there any advantages using "hjkl"?

Apr 6, 2023 · However, I agree that you should prefer hjkl motion because these keys sit on the home row and you will gain speed. Note that this only works if you are reasonably good at touch typing. Let me say it again: the key is to improve your typing skills! You can remap the cursor keys to <Nop> so they will do nothing. You can also assign some other ...