vim and notepad++ [closed]

Question

So a lot of my programmer buddies have urged me to switch from (g)vim to a "real" text editor like notepad++. My opinion has always been that they simply don't understand how to use vim. Lately, I've been hearing more and more people talking about notepad++ and I got to wondering... Does notepad++ actually have any features that Vim doesn't or vice versa? Nobody has actually been able to give me any legitimate reason to make the switch other than that they like it more. What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

Vim has modal editing (answering the vice versa part). And it runs in a terminal. You are likely correct; if "vim" isn't a real text editor, I'm not sure what is. I guess ed, the standard Unix text editor, would be the only real one.

Answer 2

Don't let the peer pressure get to you. They're just jealous because they can't delete a line with two keystrokes.

Vim is just as much of a text editor as Notepad++. You can mod vim to have colors, tabs, basically everything that Notepad++ has and so much more.

Answer 3

Vim is about touch typist shortcuts. Notepad++ is a usual text editor. I have been using vim for years now and I would not trade it for Notepad++. However, to a new user its definitively easier to use Notepad++ than vim. Vim has a very bad learning curve.