Vim Plugins You Should Know About, Part IV: snipmate.vim

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argv Permalink
August 10, 2009, 21:50

The merits of Vim aside, dum8d0g makes a point worth considering with respect to *all* software. Too much customisation.

How much is "too much"?

Consider if you were by chance left without all your customisations, and you had to get things done. How long would it take you to get back up to speed?

Learning to work with default configurations and "base" software, and to use the simplest means possible to accomplish tasks can be a beneficial practice. Among other things, it makes recovery easier, reduces fear of data loss and encourages *your* portability.

We have all perhaps at some time become enthused with the potentials of customisation. Indeed it is a channel for one's creativity toward improving efficiency. But... do you agree that:

"Limitation breeds creativity"

For reasons I will not explain, not every computer will have Vim, perl, xargs, bash, etc. *But*... most all of them will have a very "old" line or stream editor and a very "old" shell. These programs are always present, decade after decade, for reasons I will not explain.

Personally, for text clips, I prefer the ::multiple copy-paste buffer:: of tmux (a GNU screen alternative). It is small, simple stable (more so than screen, in my experience), and it compiles easily. It allows, with some creativity, clips to be copied, stored, loaded and pasted across *all* applications, whether to or from the console or X windows. And of course one can set key bindings, just like Vim or screen.

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