Re: OT: The so called "steep learning curve" of vim...

On 30/09/12 15:37, meino.cramer@gmx.de wrote:
> Hi,
>
> it is often said, taht certain software has a "steep learning curve".
> Vi/vim is such an example for the use of this phrase...
>
> I was thinking of this phrase and the graph I would draw if I had
> to show an example for such a "steep learning curve"...
>
> I would take the time as measure for the x-axis and the amount
> of stuff I have learned about -- for example -- vim as a measure
> for the y-axis..
> Then I would draw that "steep learning curve" as an graph
> which goes -- say -- from 0,0 to 5,30.
>
> And watching this graph I would read it as
> "Using vim give one a great amount of knowledge in a very short time."
>
> So....why so many take this as a point of critic???
>
> Using software which a needs a lot of time to learn
> much lesser ... that is the problem I think...!
>
> Or...what do I misinterpret here? ;)
>
> Best regards,
> mcc
>
>

A "steep" curve is meant to make you visualise climbing a mountainside,
where every step is an arduous effort. In that respect I would say (but
it is my private opinion) that Emacs, not Vim, has a steep learning
curve. Try as I may, even after finding how to do a certain thing with
Emacs, the next time I need the same command I have to look it up again.
And again. And again.

IOW, I'd suppose the y-axis is meant to represent the required effort,
and the x-axis what you have learnt: if the curve is steep, you need a
lot of effort to learn just the next single little thing.

With Vim, my take on the matter is that the learning curve is long
(there are many things to learn) but not steep (because the help is well
laid out, commands are easily learnt, and don't need an extraordinarily
big effort to remember): there is a long way to go from rank beginner to
Vim guru, but the individual steps along the way aren't hard (or don't
feel hard to me), especially now that the helphelp.txt helpfile (which
didn't yet exist when I came to Vim) summarizes in one place most of the
useful tricks to use when you get that needle-and-haystack feeling: you
know: "the paragraph I need is out there somewhere in that wonderful but
gigantic help; now how do I lay hands on it?" Well, even the answer to
that question is found in the help, at a place which is easy to find.


Best regards,
Tony.
--
5 out of 4 people have trouble with fractions.

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