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greengreengrass 2 minutes ago [-]
Neat, but the (presumably AI-generated) provenance of this means it has regrettable gaps and errors:
On "There and back", it says par is 6 – it's solvable in 4.
On "Rush hour", it describes an invalid motion 'r': "type a number first to repeat a command, e.g. 3j or 4r"
It isn't clear why certain motions are being introduced where they aren't relevant, and therefore aren't going to be immediately practised at point of introduction – "Rush hour" introduces gg to go home, but then doesn't need it.
If I'm going to use something to practice and hone my vim motion, I'm going to need it to be an accurate resource. I closed it at this point.
rhetenor 1 hours ago [-]
Pretty cool game, thanks!
Two suggestions that came to my mind while playing:
Would be pretty neat to also been able to navigate the town map with vi bindings and it would also be nice to been able to undo the last keystroke with 'u'.
nehal3m 5 hours ago [-]
Beautiful project. Vim controls really found their way into my muscle memory through Tridactyl and Vimium, browser extensions that let you drive web pages and the browser itself with Vim keybinds.
rpozarickij 41 minutes ago [-]
There's also Homerow [0] that adds Vimium-like features OS-wide on macOS. It does have some rough edges but overall I've been very happy with it. It usually works well even on apps that don't have proper keyboard navigation implemented and also handles situations with many clickable elements very well (e.g. IntelliJ).
I really like this but feels like it does not really work on a Swedish keyboard layout (macOS), cannot input '$'. Tried both Alt+4 (how you actually input '$') which works in vim and Shift+4 (US layout).
lanycrost 2 hours ago [-]
Nice job, I will play for sure!
I've learned vim with vim adventures years ago and always wondered for a free game to learn.
JdeBP 13 hours ago [-]
Yes, hjkl navigation is certainly one of the things that should learn about a vi clone. But are novices well served, in the 2020s, by that being the primary thing that they learn before anything else?
This is not a criticism of this WWW site specifically. The VIM doco has the same priorities, teaching hjkl navigation before arrow keys. (So do nvi2 and NeoVIM.) The problem is that the received wisdom, that arrow keys are some newfangled idea that might not have reached your terminal manufacturer yet, is massively out of date.
Even if one does not teach the arrow keys first, the BS SPC SO (Control+N) DLE (Control+P) set is surely worth teaching early on. One cannot make any reasonable argument that terminals might not have spacebars. (-:
tokamak-teapot 4 hours ago [-]
The reasons I still use vi-style editing in editors are:
1. Efficiency, so I can be fast
2. Minimal stretching and whole-hand movement, so I don't get painful wrists and so I can be accurate.
Using a keyboard's arrow keys doesn't fit with 2.
zavec 19 minutes ago [-]
I always wonder about the choice of hjkl, because don't people normally rest their hands one row to the left, on jkl;?
alexhans 2 hours ago [-]
Touch typing essentially. It's such a comfortable way to work. Remapping mode switching to something like jk instead of Esc is vital to stay comfortably in the home row.
I always liked this site to grok some of those vim fundamentals [1] and the touch typing part was going to touch typing exercise webpages and getting pure practice.
Sorry to be blunt, but if you don’t want to spend effort on touch typing (and therefore avoid arrow keys), learning vim motions is rather pointless and you might as well not bother.
throw-the-towel 31 minutes ago [-]
I'll be blunt to you back: that's not true. Vim motions are useful because you don't have to switch between the keyboard and the mouse, even if you (like me) never bothered with touch typing.
jldugger 3 hours ago [-]
but what if i learned to type Colemak?
flexagoon 27 minutes ago [-]
I just have a layer on my keyboard that puts arrow keys where hjkl are on qwerty when I hold the tab key. Since tab is right next to my pinky finger on my laptop, it easily became muscle memory, and allows to use home row navigation in all apps, not just the ones that support hjkl.
adrian_b 3 hours ago [-]
Many years ago, I have switched to touch-typing using the Dvorak layout (on standard QWERTY keyboards), which I find much more comfortable.
Obviously any classic control key assignments, like those of vi or those of emacs, are far from optimal on a non-standard keyboard layout.
The only decent solution is to remap all control keys in your text editor, to whichever positions you prefer.
Any good text editor allows that. Likewise, all programs with a good user interface allow the remapping of the keyboard shortcuts.
eska 3 hours ago [-]
At that point does your keyboard even still have arrow keys?
johncoltrane 4 hours ago [-]
hjkl are more of a cult/status thing anyway because they are not _that_ touch-typing-friendly to begin with, and they suck just as much as the cursor keys for moving the cursor around.
Insisting so much on hjkl is silly. No one is using an ADM-3A in 2026, so the official documentation should let users use the more intuitive cursor keys and downgrade hjkl to what they have always been since vi: __ham-fisted alternatives to the cursor keys__.
flexagoon 24 minutes ago [-]
How are they "not that touch-typing-friendly" when they're literally the keys that are always under your fingers when touch typing?
17 hours ago [-]
5 hours ago [-]
anthk 4 hours ago [-]
Every roguelike player has these bolted in. Just play Nethack/Slashem/DCSS/Cataclysm DDA:Bright Nights...
bitwize 15 hours ago [-]
Can I go to the place where the Mu-Mu mate and the children still cry "Mine's a 99!"?
On "There and back", it says par is 6 – it's solvable in 4.
On "Rush hour", it describes an invalid motion 'r': "type a number first to repeat a command, e.g. 3j or 4r"
It isn't clear why certain motions are being introduced where they aren't relevant, and therefore aren't going to be immediately practised at point of introduction – "Rush hour" introduces gg to go home, but then doesn't need it.
If I'm going to use something to practice and hone my vim motion, I'm going to need it to be an accurate resource. I closed it at this point.
Two suggestions that came to my mind while playing: Would be pretty neat to also been able to navigate the town map with vi bindings and it would also be nice to been able to undo the last keystroke with 'u'.
[0] https://www.homerow.app/
I've learned vim with vim adventures years ago and always wondered for a free game to learn.
This is not a criticism of this WWW site specifically. The VIM doco has the same priorities, teaching hjkl navigation before arrow keys. (So do nvi2 and NeoVIM.) The problem is that the received wisdom, that arrow keys are some newfangled idea that might not have reached your terminal manufacturer yet, is massively out of date.
Even if one does not teach the arrow keys first, the BS SPC SO (Control+N) DLE (Control+P) set is surely worth teaching early on. One cannot make any reasonable argument that terminals might not have spacebars. (-:
1. Efficiency, so I can be fast
2. Minimal stretching and whole-hand movement, so I don't get painful wrists and so I can be accurate.
Using a keyboard's arrow keys doesn't fit with 2.
I always liked this site to grok some of those vim fundamentals [1] and the touch typing part was going to touch typing exercise webpages and getting pure practice.
- [1] http://learnvimscriptthehardway.stevelosh.com/
Obviously any classic control key assignments, like those of vi or those of emacs, are far from optimal on a non-standard keyboard layout.
The only decent solution is to remap all control keys in your text editor, to whichever positions you prefer.
Any good text editor allows that. Likewise, all programs with a good user interface allow the remapping of the keyboard shortcuts.
Insisting so much on hjkl is silly. No one is using an ADM-3A in 2026, so the official documentation should let users use the more intuitive cursor keys and downgrade hjkl to what they have always been since vi: __ham-fisted alternatives to the cursor keys__.