Bunch of random old messages are showing under my #Amethyst notifications tab ?. Any one else ? #askNostr

Money is not printed by government.. gov only sells debt .. they pay interest on that debt just the way you pay mortgage.. Money is printed by the banks .. and they do so with utmost care .. they only buy debt from the entities who they are sure of getting back the money .. it is a private enterprise .. you can start buying debt of anyone anyway at a coupen rate that you feel okay ... What is wrong in it ?

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The Gold Standard: An In-Depth Analysis of Vim's Enduring Dominance as a Text Editor Section I: The Genesis of an Editing Paradigm: From Teletypes to Visual Mode The ascent of Vim to its status as a "gold standard" among text editors is not the result of a single, monolithic design. Instead, its core principles represent a living history of computing, an evolutionary adaptation to the severe technological constraints of its time. To understand Vim is to understand the journey from clattering teletypes to the first flickering CRT displays. Its efficiency was not an abstract goal but a necessary trait for survival in an era of limited bandwidth and primitive hardware. This historical context is the bedrock upon which its entire philosophy is built. 1.1 The Primordial Soup: QED and Ken Thompson's ed The lineage of what can be termed the "wq text editor" begins in the mid-1960s at Bell Labs, a crucible of computing innovation. It was there that Ken Thompson, having recently arrived from the University of California, Berkeley, brought with him his experience with a text editor named QED ("Quick Editor"). Thompson had used QED on the Berkeley Timesharing System and, upon joining Bell Labs, rewrote it first for the MIT Compatible Time-Sharing System and later for the Multics project. When AT&T withdrew from the Multics project, Thompson and his colleague Dennis Ritchie found themselves without the interactive computing environment they had grown accustomed to. This void spurred them to create their own operating system, which would become Unix. In a legendary burst of productivity in August 1969, Thompson laid the groundwork for this new system, allocating about a week each to the operating system, the shell, the assembler, and a text editor. This editor was ed. Based on his familiarity with QED, Thompson's ed was a simplified yet powerful tool designed for the dominant interface of the era: the teletype printer. This hardware limitation is paramount to understanding ed's design. There was no screen to display the file's contents; user interaction consisted of typing commands and receiving printed output on a roll of paper. Users were effectively editing blind, operating on a file they could not see in its entirety. This environment demanded a precise, command-driven interface. ed was a true line editor, where one could only operate on one line at a time. Despite its spartan nature, ed established foundational conventions that have persisted for over half a century and are instantly recognizable to any Vim user today : * The w command to write the buffer to disk. * The q command to quit the editor. * The combined wq to save and exit. * The modal concept of entering an "input mode" with commands like i (insert) and a (append). * The powerful substitution syntax, s/foo/bar/g, for global search and replace operations. However, ed was notoriously difficult for novices, greeting users with utter silence upon launch and providing cryptic feedback. Its perceived hostility created an opportunity for a more user-centric approach. 1.2 The Humanist Revolution: George Coulouris and em ("Editor for Mortals") By the mid-1970s, video display terminals (VDTs) were becoming more common, yet the standard Unix editor, ed, was still fundamentally designed for paper. In February 1976, George Coulouris, a lecturer at Queen Mary College in London, grew frustrated with ed's opacity and decided to create something better. Using Ken Thompson's original source code as a starting point, he developed em, wryly dubbed the "editor for mortals," in contrast to the "immortals" who could master ed. em represented a crucial evolutionary leap. It was a single-line-at-a-time visual editor designed specifically for display terminals. For the first time on Unix, a user could see a line of text on the screen and edit it in place. To achieve this, em was one of the first Unix programs to make heavy use of "raw terminal input mode," a state where the program itself, rather than the terminal driver, handles every single keystroke. This direct control was essential for the character-by-character interaction that visual editing required. 1.3 The Berkeley Synthesis: Bill Joy and the Birth of ex/vi The next chapter of the story unfolds at UC Berkeley, a burgeoning hub for Unix development. In the summer of 1976, George Coulouris visited the university and brought with him a tape containing em. He demonstrated his "editor for mortals" to various people, including a gifted graduate student named Bill Joy, who was a key figure in developing the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). While some dismissed em as a resource hog, Joy was impressed. Inspired by Coulouris's program and their own modifications to ed, Joy and fellow student Chuck Haley used code from em to create a new editor called en, which soon evolved into ex, for "extended ed". Version 1.1 of ex was bundled with the first release of BSD Unix in 1978, but it was still fundamentally a line editor, albeit one with an "open mode" that mimicked em's single-line visual editing. The true breakthrough came between June and October of 1977. Encouraged by Bruce Englar after Haley's departure, Bill Joy undertook a major redesign of ex, adding a full-screen visual mode. This new mode was revolutionary. It took over the entire screen, allowing a user to see and edit a file in real-time, much like a modern word processor. This visual mode was vi. It is a common misconception that vi was a successor to ex. In reality, vi and ex share the same codebase; vi is simply the visual mode of ex. The name "vi" itself originates from the abbreviated ex command, vi, used to switch from the line-oriented ex prompt into the full-screen visual mode. In May 1979, with the second release of BSD, Joy made this the default behavior by creating an executable named vi that was a hard link to ex. When the program was invoked as vi, it would launch directly into its visual mode, and the editor as we know it today was born. 1.4 Forged in Latency: How Hardware Constraints Defined an Efficient Grammar The genius of vi's design lies not in abstract theory but in its pragmatic solutions to the severe hardware limitations Bill Joy faced. He developed vi using a Lear Siegler ADM-3A terminal, connected to a PDP-11 minicomputer over a dial-up connection that ran at a painfully slow 300 baud (bits per second). At that speed, redrawing a full screen of text could take several seconds. This technological bottleneck was the single most important factor in shaping vi's efficient, keyboard-centric interface. Every core feature that defines the Vim experience today can be traced back to this primitive setup : * h, j, k, l for Navigation: The ADM-3A keyboard was a product of its time; it had no dedicated cursor keys. Instead, arrows were painted directly onto the h, j, k, and l keys. Joy's choice was not one of ergonomic preference but of sheer necessity. This historical accident is the reason millions of developers today navigate text with these four letters on the home row. * The Role of the Escape Key: On the ADM-3A keyboard, the Escape key was located where the Tab key resides on modern keyboards—an easily accessible position on the left side of the home row. Given the frequent need to switch between inserting text and issuing commands, this convenient placement made it the logical choice for exiting insert mode and returning to command (or normal) mode. * Terse, Single-Key Commands: The most profound impact of the slow 300-baud modem was on the command structure itself. With screen updates being so costly, a verbose interface would have been unusable. Joy designed vi with terse, single-character commands (d for delete, y for yank, x for cut character) that minimized the amount of data transmitted. This allowed him to "type ahead of the display," issuing a sequence of commands without waiting for the screen to catch up, thereby remaining productive even over a high-latency connection. These constraints, born of a bygone era, accidentally created a paradigm of text editing optimized for minimal keystrokes, maximum efficiency, and a complete reliance on the keyboard. The solutions to the problems of the 1970s—slow networks and limited keyboards—fortuitously became the ideal solution for the problems of the 21st century: reducing cognitive load and minimizing physical strain for the user. A critical catalyst in the journey from the proprietary vi to the open-source Vim was the legal status of the original code. Because vi was a derivative work of ed, its source code could not be modified or distributed without an AT&T source license. This restriction created a significant demand for free, open-source clones. One of the first and most popular was Stevie (ST Editor for VI Enthusiasts), created in 1987 by Tim Thompson for the Atari ST. Crucially, Stevie did not use any of vi's original source code. This legal freedom made it the perfect foundation for a Dutch programmer named Bram Moolenaar, who would take this humble clone and forge it into the editor that would eventually conquer the world. <br> Table 1: The Lineage of the 'wq' Editor | Editor | Key Individual(s) | Approx. Date | Seminal Contribution | |---|---|---|---| | QED | Ken Thompson | 1966 | Regular expressions, multiple buffers | | ed | Ken Thompson | 1969 | The standard Unix line editor; established w, q, s syntax | | em | George Coulouris | 1976 | "Editor for Mortals"; single-line visual editing for display terminals | | ex | Bill Joy | 1977 | "Extended ed"; integrated em's concepts into a powerful line editor | | vi | Bill Joy | 1979 | The full-screen "visual mode" of ex; established hjkl, Esc, and terse commands | | Stevie | Tim Thompson | 1987 | A popular, license-free vi clone for the Atari ST | | Vim | Bram Moolenaar | 1988 | "Vi IMproved"; built upon Stevie, adding multi-level undo and countless features | <br> Section II: The Philosophy of Modal Editing: A Language for Text Manipulation At the heart of Vim's power and its infamous learning curve lies a single, transformative concept: modal editing. For the uninitiated, this is often the point of confusion and frustration, where typing familiar letters results in unexpected and seemingly destructive actions. However, for the proficient user, this modal interface is not a quirky feature but a complete and expressive language for interacting with text. It represents a fundamental paradigm shift that elevates the act of editing from a series of mechanical inputs to a fluid expression of intent. 2.1 The Core Premise: Editing vs. Writing The entire philosophy of modal editing is built upon a simple yet profound observation about the nature of programming and writing: a user spends the vast majority of their time reading, navigating, and making small, targeted changes to existing text, rather than writing long, uninterrupted streams of new content. Traditional, non-modal editors like Notepad or VS Code operate in a single mode—"insert"—where every key press (not modified by Ctrl, Alt, etc.) results in a character appearing on the screen. This design optimizes for the least common activity: continuous typing. Vim's design inverts this. It recognizes that navigation and manipulation are the primary tasks and thus makes them the default state. This leads to the fundamental separation of its two basic modes : * Normal Mode: This is the default mode and the user's resting state. In Normal mode, the entire keyboard becomes a command console. Every key has a function dedicated to navigating or manipulating text. This is where Vim's power lies. * Insert Mode: This mode is a temporary state, entered for the specific purpose of typing new text. It behaves like a traditional editor. The user enters Insert mode, types what is needed, and then immediately returns to Normal mode by pressing Esc. This separation is a deliberate design choice that optimizes the keyboard for the most frequent tasks. Instead of requiring awkward modifier key combinations (or reaching for the mouse) for every action, Vim dedicates the entire alphabet to powerful commands, accessible with single, ergonomic keystrokes from the home row. 2.2 The Grammar of Vim: Operators (Verbs) and Motions (Nouns) The true elegance of Vim's Normal mode is that its commands are not an arbitrary collection of shortcuts but the components of a consistent and composable language. This "Vim language" has a simple, powerful grammar that, once internalized, allows users to construct complex commands on the fly. The fundamental rule of this grammar is: command = verb + noun. * Verbs (Operators): These are the actions the user wants to perform. They are typically mnemonic single letters that represent an editing operation. The most common verbs include: * d - delete * c - change (delete the target text and enter Insert mode) * y - yank (copy) * v - visually select * > - indent * < - dedent * Nouns (Motions): These define the region of text upon which the verb will act. They are commands that move the cursor, and the "noun" is the text that the cursor moves over. Common motions include: * w - to the beginning of the next word * b - to the beginning of the previous word * $ - to the end of the current line * 0 - to the beginning of the current line * } - to the next paragraph (or code block) * t, - to the character just before the next comma on the line By combining these simple, orthogonal components, a user can form an immense number of precise commands. For example: * dw - delete word * c$ - change to the end of the $-line * y} - yank to the end of the }-paragraph * >j - indent the current and next line (move down one line j) This composability is a powerful example of the software design principle of orthogonality. The set of verbs and the set of nouns are independent and can be combined in any logical way. Learning a single new verb, like gU (uppercase), instantly makes it usable with every noun the user already knows (gUw - uppercase a word, gU$ - uppercase to the end of the line). Conversely, learning a new noun, such as a plugin-provided motion to jump to the next function, immediately allows it to be used with d, c, and y. This creates an exponential return on the user's learning investment; each new piece of vocabulary multiplies the user's expressive power. 2.3 Expanding the Vocabulary: Text Objects and Modifiers While motions are powerful, they are typically bound to the cursor's starting position. A more advanced and semantic type of "noun" in the Vim language is the text object. Text objects refer to entire blocks of text—such as a word, a sentence, a quoted string, or the content inside a pair of parentheses—regardless of where the cursor is located within that block. Text objects are typically invoked with a two-character sequence, using a modifier to specify the scope: * i - inner: Selects the content inside a delimiter. * a - around: Selects the content and the delimiters themselves. This allows for incredibly precise and efficient editing that is simply not possible in non-modal editors without manual selection. For example, if the cursor is anywhere inside the string "Hello, world!": * di" - delete inner "-quotes: Results in "". * ci" - change inner "-quotes: Deletes "Hello, world!" and places the user in Insert mode between the quotes. * da" - delete around "-quotes: Deletes the entire string, including the quotes. This grammar extends to numerous other objects: w (word), s (sentence), p (paragraph), (, ), [, ], {, }, and t (HTML/XML tag). Commands like dat (delete a tag) or ci( (change inner **(**parentheses) become second nature, allowing the user to manipulate code based on its structure, not just its characters. This shifts the user's cognitive model from direct, low-level manipulation ("move cursor, select, delete") to a higher level of declarative intent ("change the contents of this string"), dramatically reducing cognitive load and allowing the user to edit at the speed of thought. 2.4 The Power of Repetition: The Dot Command and Macros The final piece of Vim's linguistic puzzle is its powerful mechanism for repetition. The most fundamental of these is the dot . command, which simply repeats the last change. The power of the dot command is a direct consequence of Vim's composable grammar. In Vim, a "change" is not just a single character insertion or deletion; it is the entire verb + noun command sequence, including any text entered in the subsequent Insert mode session. Consider the task of changing a variable name from old_name to new_name in multiple places. A Vim user might perform the following steps: * Navigate to the first instance of old_name. * Execute ciw (change inner word). This deletes old_name and enters Insert mode. * Type new_name. * Press Esc to return to Normal mode. This entire sequence—the command, the text insertion, and the return to Normal mode—is now registered as the "last change." The user can then navigate to the next instance of old_name and simply press . to repeat the entire operation instantly. This turns a complex, repetitive task into a simple pattern of search ->. -> search ->.. For even more complex automation, Vim provides macros. By pressing q followed by a letter (e.g., qa), the user can start recording every subsequent keystroke into a register. After performing a complex sequence of edits, pressing q again stops the recording. The entire sequence can then be replayed by typing @a. This allows for the automation of virtually any repetitive editing task, from simple text substitutions to complex, multi-file refactoring operations. Together, the modal interface, the composable grammar, and the powerful repetition tools form a cohesive system that transforms text editing from a chore into a craft. It provides a language that is not only efficient but also deeply satisfying to master, allowing users to achieve a state of flow where the editor becomes a seamless extension of their thoughts. Section III: Vi IMproved: Bram Moolenaar's Vision and the Evolution of Vim While vi laid the philosophical groundwork, it was the vision and decades-long dedication of one person, Bram Moolenaar, that transformed a humble vi clone into the global standard known as Vim. Vim's story is one of incremental, user-focused innovation, guided by a philosophy that prioritized stability and genuine improvement over fleeting trends. Moolenaar's work represents a masterclass in nurturing an open-source project, turning it from a personal tool into a worldwide phenomenon. 3.1 A Clone is Born: "Vi IMitation" for the Amiga The story of Vim begins in 1988 with Bram Moolenaar, a Dutch software engineer who had recently purchased an Amiga computer. As a user of Unix systems, he was accustomed to the power and efficiency of vi, but a port of the editor was not available for the Amiga. Moolenaar tested several vi clones that did exist, including an editor called Stevie (ST Editor for VI Enthusiasts). As discussed previously, the original vi source code was encumbered by an AT&T license, which restricted its distribution and modification. Stevie, created by Tim Thompson in 1987, was one of the first popular clones written from scratch, free of this legal baggage. This open-source nature was critical. Moolenaar took the source code for Stevie and began improving upon it to suit his own needs, aiming to replicate the vi experience he missed. In 1988, he created his first version, which was never publicly released. After several years of work, the first public release of his editor appeared on November 2, 1991. It was included on Fred Fish disk #591, a collection of freeware for the Amiga. At the time of its debut, the name "Vim" was an acronym for "Vi IMitation," reflecting its humble goal of simply being a vi substitute for a different platform. 3.2 The Turning Point: "Vi IMproved" The initial release of Vim was already a significant achievement, but its scope was limited to the Amiga community. The pivotal moment in its history came in 1992, when Vim was ported to Unix. This move placed Moolenaar's creation in direct competition with the original vi on its home turf. It was no longer just an imitation for a niche platform; it was now a contender. This shift in ambition was formalized in late 1993 with the release of Vim 2.0. The name's meaning was officially changed from "Vi IMitation" to "Vi IMproved". This was more than a semantic change; it was a declaration of intent. Vim's goal was no longer just to be compatible with vi, but to be superior to it. To back up this claim, Vim offered a killer feature that immediately set it apart: persistent, multi-level undo. The original vi had only a single level of undo. If a user undid a change and then made another edit, the original change was lost forever. Vim's multi-level undo was a revolutionary improvement, allowing users to step back through a long history of changes. This single feature was so compelling that it gave many vi users a powerful reason to switch. Moolenaar's strategy was clear: maintain rigorous compatibility with vi to provide a seamless transition for existing users, while simultaneously offering undeniable improvements that made switching irresistible. 3.3 A Legacy of Innovation: Key Milestones in Vim's Development Following the release of version 2.0, Vim entered a period of steady, relentless innovation. Moolenaar continued to add features that systematically addressed the shortcomings of vi and expanded Vim's capabilities into areas its predecessor never touched. The release history reads like a checklist for building a world-class editor : * Version 3.0 (1994): Support for multiple windows (splits) and buffers was introduced, a feature inspired by another vi clone, nvi. This allowed users to view and edit multiple files on the same screen, a fundamental requirement for serious programming. * Version 4.0 (1996): The first Graphical User Interface (GUI), known as gVim, was released. While Vim's soul remains in the terminal, gVim added familiar elements like menus and toolbars, making the editor more approachable for users accustomed to graphical environments. * Version 5.0 (1998): This was a landmark release that introduced two of Vim's most powerful features: syntax highlighting and basic scripting (Vimscript). Syntax highlighting transformed the readability of code, while Vimscript opened the door for deep customization and the creation of plugins, laying the foundation for the vast ecosystem that exists today. * Version 6.0 (2001): This release brought another wave of major enhancements, including code folding, a formal plugin architecture, and improved multi-language support. * Version 7.0 (2006): A feature-packed release that added built-in spell checking, tab pages for workspace management, and the revolutionary undo tree. The undo tree was a significant advancement over linear undo history, allowing users to navigate a branching history of changes and recover any previous state of the document. * Version 8.0 (2016): A critical modernization effort, this version introduced asynchronous I/O support, jobs, and lambdas. Asynchronous support was a game-changer, allowing plugins to perform long-running tasks (like linting or code completion) in the background without freezing the editor, a crucial step toward competing with modern IDEs. * Version 9.0 (2022): The introduction of Vim9 script, a backward-incompatible but dramatically faster version of Vimscript, demonstrated a continued commitment to performance and to addressing the language's historical shortcomings. This consistent, decades-long history of meaningful improvement is a core reason for Vim's enduring relevance. It has never remained static, evolving to meet the changing needs of developers while carefully preserving the core principles that make it so effective. 3.4 The Philosophy of the Creator: Charityware and User-Centric Development Underpinning Vim's technical evolution is the unique personal philosophy of its creator. Bram Moolenaar never intended to make money from Vim; it began as a hobby and remained a passion project throughout his life. This non-commercial ethos had a profound impact on the project's development and its community. When users began telling Moolenaar that Vim was worth money and that they wanted to pay for it, he combined this sentiment with his personal desire to help those in need. The result was "Charityware". The Vim license is free and open-source, but it includes a clause encouraging users who find the software valuable to make a donation to ICCF Holland, a non-governmental organization Moolenaar founded to support AIDS orphans in Uganda. This model proved remarkably successful, raising significant funds over the years and fostering a unique culture of goodwill and shared purpose around the editor. This decoupling from commercial interests also shaped Moolenaar's development philosophy. He was not beholden to market pressures or the demands of paying customers. This freedom allowed him to maintain a long-term vision for the editor, prioritizing stability, backward compatibility, and carefully considered features over chasing trends. His mantra, as remembered by his colleagues, was, "Detect inefficiencies, find a quicker way, make it a habit". He would often reject feature requests that seemed easy to add in the short term but would compromise the editor's conceptual integrity or make future enhancements more difficult. This patient, deliberate, and user-centric approach, unburdened by commercial motives, is a key reason for Vim's legendary stability and consistency. Users have invested decades in learning its interface with the confidence that their skills will remain relevant, a promise that few other software projects can make. Section IV: The Pillars of the Standard: Ubiquity, Performance, and Extensibility Beyond its historical lineage and powerful editing model, Vim's status as a gold standard rests on three practical pillars: its universal availability, its exceptional performance, and its near-infinite capacity for customization. These attributes are not merely convenient; they form a powerful feedback loop that makes Vim an indispensable tool for a vast range of users, from system administrators managing remote servers to developers crafting complex applications on powerful workstations. 4.1 Ubiquity: The Editor That's Always There Vim's single most undeniable advantage is its ubiquity. This universality manifests in two critical ways: standardization and cross-platform availability. First, its ancestor, vi, is enshrined in the POSIX standard. This specification dictates the core components and behaviors of a Unix-like operating system. As a result, a vi-compatible editor (which on modern systems is almost always Vim, or a symbolic link to it) is guaranteed to be present on virtually every compliant system. This makes basic vi/Vim literacy a fundamental skill for anyone working in a Unix environment. Second, Vim has been ported to nearly every operating system imaginable. Official and community-maintained versions exist for all major platforms like Linux, macOS, and MS-Windows, but also for a vast array of others, including MS-DOS, AmigaOS, Android, and iOS. This ensures that users can have a consistent editing experience regardless of the hardware or software they are using. This ubiquity is most critical in the context of remote server administration. When a developer or system administrator connects to a remote server via SSH, especially a minimal or emergency environment, they cannot rely on graphical editors or their favorite IDE being installed. The one tool they can almost always count on is vi. For this reason alone, Vim is a non-negotiable tool in the sysadmin's toolkit. Furthermore, Vim itself has robust, built-in capabilities for remote editing. Through its netrw plugin (a standard part of Vim for many years), users can directly open and edit files on remote systems from their local Vim instance. This is accomplished by prefixing the file path with the desired protocol. For example, a user can run: vim scp://user@remote-server.com//path/to/file.txt This command uses the SCP protocol to open the remote file in the user's local, highly customized Vim environment. netrw also supports other protocols like SFTP, FTP, and rsync, making it a powerful tool for remote file management without ever leaving the editor. 4.2 Performance: Lightweight and Blazingly Fast In an era where many popular code editors are built on web technologies like Electron, Vim's performance stands in stark contrast. Written in C and designed to run in a terminal, Vim is exceptionally lightweight and fast. This is not a minor feature; it fundamentally affects the user experience and the scope of tasks the editor can handle. Modern IDEs like VS Code, while powerful, carry the significant overhead of their underlying framework. This often results in slow startup times and high memory consumption, which can become a serious issue on resource-constrained machines or when working with very large projects. Benchmarks have shown Vim to be orders of magnitude more efficient, starting up to 82% faster while using 96% less RAM than VS Code for the same task. This efficiency means Vim remains snappy and responsive, providing an input latency so low that the editor feels like an instantaneous extension of the user's fingers. This performance is particularly crucial when dealing with large files. Many GUI-based editors struggle or become completely unresponsive when attempting to open files that are hundreds of megabytes or even gigabytes in size. Vim, due to its efficient memory management and terminal-based rendering, can handle these files with ease, making it an indispensable tool for tasks like analyzing large log files or working with data dumps. 4.3 Extensibility Part 1: The Power of Dotfiles Vim's default configuration is intentionally minimal. Its true power is unlocked through customization, which is primarily handled by plain-text configuration files known as "dotfiles". The most important of these is the ~/.vimrc file (or ~/.config/nvim/init.vim for Neovim), which contains all of the user's personalized settings, key mappings, and plugin configurations. The use of simple text files for configuration is a cornerstone of the Unix philosophy and provides several profound advantages: * Portability: A user can copy their dotfiles to any new machine and instantly replicate their entire customized environment. * Version Control: By placing their dotfiles in a Git repository, users can track every change to their configuration over time, experiment with new settings on separate branches, and roll back to previous versions if something breaks. * Synchronization and Sharing: Using a remote Git repository (like on GitHub), users can keep their configurations synchronized across multiple machines and share their setups with the community, fostering a culture of collaborative improvement. Tools like GNU stow or dedicated dotfile managers such as chezmoi further streamline this process by managing the symbolic links from the home directory to the version-controlled files, making the setup on a new machine a matter of running a single command. This system allows a developer's personalized and highly productive environment to follow them anywhere. 4.4 Extensibility Part 2: The Plugin Ecosystem and the Rise of Lua While dotfiles provide the foundation for customization, it is Vim's extensive plugin ecosystem that allows it to be transformed from a simple text editor into a powerful, full-featured Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The community has developed thousands of plugins that replicate and often improve upon the features of modern IDEs. This ecosystem can be broadly categorized: * Core Functionality: Plugins like NERDTree provide a file system explorer , while fuzzy finders like fzf.vim and ctrlp.vim allow for lightning-fast file navigation. * Version Control: Tim Pope's vim-fugitive is widely considered one of the best Git interfaces available in any editor, allowing for comprehensive version control operations without leaving Vim. * IDE Features: The advent of the Language Server Protocol (LSP) has been a watershed moment. Plugins like CoC.nvim (Conquer of Completion) and built-in LSP support in Neovim provide intelligent code completion, diagnostics, and refactoring capabilities on par with the best IDEs. Treesitter provides faster, more accurate syntax highlighting and structural text objects. * AI Integration: The latest wave of plugins integrates Large Language Models (LLMs) directly into the editor, with tools like Copilot.lua and ChatGPT.nvim offering AI-powered code completion and chat-based assistance. A significant evolution in Vim's extensibility has been the shift from its native scripting language, Vimscript, to Lua. This transition, spearheaded by the Neovim fork, has addressed one of Vim's long-standing weaknesses. While Vimscript is powerful for simple configurations, it is often described as quirky, slow, and difficult to work with for complex plugin development. Lua, by contrast, offers numerous advantages : * Performance: When combined with LuaJIT (a just-in-time compiler), Lua is significantly faster than Vimscript. * Simplicity and Power: Lua is a small, sane, and well-established programming language, making it much easier for new developers to learn and write complex plugins. * Ecosystem: As a general-purpose language, Lua has a wealth of existing libraries and development tools (linters, formatters, language servers) that can be leveraged for plugin development. This adoption of Lua has unleashed a new wave of innovation in the (Neo)Vim ecosystem, enabling the creation of highly sophisticated and performant plugins that were previously difficult or impossible to write in Vimscript. This successful architectural modernization ensures that the Vim paradigm remains competitive and continues to evolve, preserving its core strengths while embracing the capabilities of modern software development. Section V: The Modern Contenders: Vim in the Age of IDEs In the contemporary software development landscape, dominated by feature-rich Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), Vim's continued relevance can seem paradoxical. Yet, a comparative analysis reveals that its value lies not in competing on a feature-for-feature basis, but in offering a fundamentally different—and for many, superior—philosophy of work. Vim's standing as a gold standard is best understood by contrasting its core tenets with those of its main rivals. 5.1 Vim vs. VS Code: The Terminal-Native Artisan vs. The Electron-Powered Workshop The most common comparison today is between Vim and Visual Studio Code. This matchup highlights a deep philosophical divide between a tool designed for the craft of text editing and a platform designed for the process of project development. * Workflow and Interface: Vim's workflow is keyboard-driven, modal, and centered around the command line. It is an environment of explicit command, where nothing happens until the user directs it. VS Code, conversely, is a GUI-centric, mouse-friendly application built on the Electron framework. Its workflow is more discoverable and visually oriented, with a heavy reliance on sidebars, graphical menus, and integrated terminals. While VS Code offers a Vim emulation plugin, it often fails to capture the seamless integration and complete extensibility of the native Vim language. Many core Vim features and plugin commands do not translate perfectly, and the user is frequently forced out of the Vim paradigm to interact with VS Code's native UI elements. * Resource Usage and Performance: This is Vim's most decisive victory. As a lightweight, compiled C application, Vim's startup time and memory footprint are negligible. VS Code, as an Electron app, is essentially a packaged web browser running a web application, which results in significantly slower startup times and higher CPU and RAM consumption. For developers working on older hardware, in resource-constrained virtual environments, or on very large codebases, this performance difference is not trivial; it is a daily factor affecting productivity. * Customization Philosophy: Both tools are highly customizable, but in different ways. VS Code offers a vast marketplace of extensions and a straightforward settings.json file. This model is accessible and powerful. Vim, however, offers a more fundamental level of control. Through .vimrc and Lua scripting, the user is not just adding features but reprogramming the core behavior of the editor itself—creating new verbs, nouns, and text objects that become part of its language. This represents a shift from configuring a tool to crafting an instrument. The core distinction lies in their approach to complexity. VS Code provides a great deal of "implicit magic," with many processes like file indexing, linting, and Git status checks running asynchronously in the background. This is convenient but can be opaque and lead to unpredictable performance issues. Vim, by contrast, operates on a principle of explicit command. It is synchronous and fast precisely because it does nothing without being told. This gives the user complete control and predictable performance, an attribute highly valued by expert users who prefer a responsive and deterministic environment over automated but often intrusive "help". 5.2 Vim vs. Emacs: The Masterful Editor vs. The Extensible Operating System The rivalry between Vim and Emacs is the stuff of legend, a "holy war" that has spanned decades. The two editors represent divergent branches of the Unix philosophy. * Core Philosophy: Vim largely adheres to the classic Unix philosophy of "do one thing and do it well". It is, first and foremost, a text editor. Its features and extensibility are overwhelmingly focused on the task of manipulating text. Emacs, on the other hand, is built around a powerful Emacs Lisp (Elisp) interpreter, making it less of an editor and more of a complete, programmable work environment. Emacs users can manage their files, read email, browse the web, and organize their lives within the editor, embodying a "kitchen sink" philosophy that stands in direct opposition to Vim's focused approach. * Editing Model: This is the most significant user-facing difference. Vim's power comes from its modal editing, where single keys perform powerful commands in Normal mode. Emacs uses a non-modal system based on key chords, where commands are triggered by holding down modifier keys (Ctrl, Alt) while pressing other keys (e.g., Ctrl-x Ctrl-s to save). Vim's approach is often considered more ergonomic for text manipulation, as it minimizes finger contortions and keeps the hands on the home row. The heavy reliance on modifier keys in Emacs is famously associated with Repetitive Strain Injury, leading to the term "Emacs pinky". * Extensibility: Both are supremely extensible. Vim's Vimscript and Lua are powerful for defining editing-specific behaviors. However, Emacs Lisp provides deeper access to the editor's core; virtually any part of Emacs can be redefined on the fly. This makes Emacs arguably more extensible in a general sense, but Vim's scripting is more tightly focused on its primary purpose: editing text. While Emacs can be configured to be a phenomenal environment (and with plugins like Evil Mode, can even perfectly emulate Vim's modal editing), Vim's out-of-the-box experience is more directly aligned with the single task of efficient text editing. It presents a more focused tool, whereas Emacs presents a programmable universe. 5.3 Vim vs. Sublime Text: The Enduring Standard vs. The Modern Pretender Sublime Text emerged as a popular alternative to both traditional IDEs and terminal-based editors, praised for its speed (especially compared to Electron-based apps), polished UI, and innovative features like multiple cursors and a powerful "Goto Anything" command palette. However, when compared to Vim, its limitations as a "gold standard" become apparent. * Unique Out-of-the-Box Features: Many features that make Vim powerful are built-in, whereas Sublime often requires plugins to achieve similar functionality. Vim comes standard with a diff viewer (vimdiff), blockwise visual editing, multiple copy-paste registers, and true terminal UI operation. Its ubiquity on servers is an advantage Sublime cannot match. * Depth of the Editing Model: While Sublime Text's multiple cursors are an intuitive and powerful way to perform simultaneous edits, they are a specific solution to a specific problem. Vim's combination of the dot command, macros, and its composable command language provides a more general and arguably more powerful system for automating repetitive edits. Vim's language allows the user to solve a wider class of editing problems programmatically, rather than relying on a single, albeit useful, feature. * Longevity and Philosophy: Sublime Text is an excellent proprietary product, but Vim is an open-source, community-driven standard that has endured for over three decades. It represents not just a piece of software but an entire philosophy of text manipulation. While Sublime offers a fast and modern GUI experience, Vim provides a deeper, more universal, and more powerful editing language—a skill that transcends any single implementation and has proven its value over a lifetime of use. Ultimately, Vim's standing is not just about its features but about its fundamentally different approach to the craft of editing. While IDEs focus on project management and integration, Vim hones in on the physical and cognitive act of manipulating text with unparalleled precision and efficiency. It is this unwavering focus on the core craft that distinguishes it from its modern competitors and solidifies its position as the benchmark. Section VI: The Vim Ascent: Deconstructing the Learning Curve and Quantifying Productivity No discussion of Vim is complete without addressing its most notorious characteristic: the learning curve. It is often depicted as a sheer, insurmountable wall that deters all but the most determined users. This perception, however, obscures a more nuanced reality. The initial challenge of learning Vim is not a measure of its difficulty but rather the entry price for acquiring a deep and lasting skill. For those who persevere, the investment yields profound, long-term dividends in productivity, ergonomics, and cognitive flow that are structurally unattainable in simpler editors. 6.1 The "Learning Curve" Mythos The popular mythology surrounding Vim posits that it is "insanely difficult to learn" and requires months of dedicated effort to reach proficiency. This belief is a significant barrier to entry and is frequently cited by those who attempt Vim and quickly retreat to more familiar graphical editors. However, many experienced practitioners argue that this reputation is a myth. The reality is that basic competency in Vim can be achieved in a remarkably short amount of time. The single command vimtutor, included with nearly every Vim installation, launches a comprehensive, interactive tutorial that covers all essential commands for navigation, editing, and file management. This tutorial can be completed in about 30 minutes, and after doing so, a new user will possess the fundamental skills needed to perform their daily work. The key to success is consistent practice. A recommended plan for the first week is to complete vimtutor once a day and to commit to using Vim for all text editing tasks, no matter how painful it feels initially. This immersion helps to quickly build the necessary muscle memory. After about two weeks of dedicated use, many users report being faster and more efficient than they ever were in their previous editor. The "learning curve" is therefore better understood not as a continuous, steep incline, but as a front-loaded investment. While other editors offer immediate familiarity and a quick path to a low plateau of proficiency, Vim demands a greater initial effort but offers a near-limitless ceiling for improvement. It is a tool that rewards mastery, and users often find themselves continuing to discover more efficient workflows and commands even after years of use. 6.2 The Long-Term Payoff: Productivity Gains The ultimate justification for this initial investment is the significant long-term gain in productivity. This productivity, however, is often misunderstood as simply typing or editing text faster. While speed is a component, the true gains are more profound and relate to cognitive efficiency. A common critique is that the primary bottleneck in software development is thinking and problem-solving, not the physical act of typing code, so a faster editor offers only marginal benefits. This argument misses the crucial point that a highly efficient editor can actually aid the thinking process. The true benefit of Vim is its ability to reduce the friction and cognitive load between a thought and its execution on screen. When a developer thinks, "I need to change the contents of this function's argument," the Vim user can express this intent with a concise command like ci( without breaking their train of thought. A user of a traditional editor must engage in a series of low-level mechanical actions: move hand to mouse, precisely position the cursor, click and drag to select the text, move hand back to keyboard, type, and so on. Each of these steps is a small context switch that consumes mental energy and can disrupt the delicate state of concentration required for complex problem-solving. This efficiency becomes particularly apparent in complex refactoring tasks. Using composable commands, text objects, the dot command, and macros, a Vim user can automate repetitive edits that would be mind-numbingly tedious and error-prone in other editors. For example, changing a specific argument in dozens of function calls across a file can be accomplished by recording a macro for the first change and then replaying it with a single keystroke for each subsequent instance. This ability to "program your editor live" scales incredibly well and represents a qualitative leap in productivity. 6.3 The Ergonomic Imperative: Health and Well-being Beyond cognitive efficiency, Vim offers profound and often overlooked ergonomic benefits that are a major driver of its adoption among experienced, long-career developers. The entire design philosophy of Vim is centered on keeping the user's hands on the keyboard and, more specifically, on the home row. In a traditional, mouse-driven workflow, the user is constantly moving their dominant hand between the keyboard and the mouse. This repetitive motion, along with the awkward wrist and finger contortions required to hit common modifier-key combinations, is a significant contributor to Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), carpal tunnel syndrome, and other musculoskeletal issues. Vim's modal, keyboard-centric approach drastically reduces these harmful movements. Navigation is handled by hjkl on the home row, eliminating the need to reach for arrow keys. Because Normal mode turns the entire keyboard into a command palette, many complex actions can be performed with single keystrokes, avoiding the "nasty contortions" of holding down Ctrl, Shift, and Alt simultaneously. Numerous testimonials from long-time users credit their switch to Vim with alleviating or preventing chronic wrist, arm, and shoulder pain. Vim is not just a tool for productivity; for many, it is a tool for professional sustainability and physical well-being. 6.4 The Flow State: Editing as a Craft The culmination of these benefits—the internalized language, the cognitive efficiency, and the ergonomic comfort—is the ability for the experienced user to achieve a "flow state." This is a state of deep concentration where the editor ceases to be a conscious impediment and becomes a transparent, fluid extension of the user's thoughts. Many practitioners compare learning and using Vim to mastering a musical instrument. The initial phase is marked by conscious, deliberate practice of scales and basic chords (vimtutor and simple commands). Over time, these actions are committed to muscle memory. Eventually, the musician is no longer thinking about where to place their fingers; they are simply expressing the music. Similarly, the expert Vim user is no longer thinking "I need to press d, then i, then w"; they are simply thinking "delete this word," and their fingers execute the command automatically. This level of mastery transforms the act of editing. It becomes less of a technical task and more of a creative craft, where the tool itself fades into the background, allowing the user to focus entirely on the code or text they are shaping. It is this profound sense of unity between the user and the machine, this ability to edit at the speed of thought, that is perhaps the ultimate reason why those who ascend the Vim learning curve rarely, if ever, look back. Section VII: Synthesis: The Enduring Standard and Its Future To declare any single tool the "gold standard" in a field as dynamic as software development is a significant claim. Yet, in the case of Vim, the title is justified not by a fleeting popularity or a monopoly on features, but by its embodiment of a durable, masterable, and profoundly efficient standard of practice for the craft of text editing. Its preeminence is the result of a unique synthesis of historical necessity, philosophical elegance, technical superiority, and a commitment to the user's long-term well-being. 7.1 Recapitulation: The Case for the Gold Standard The arguments presented throughout this analysis converge on four central themes that collectively build the case for Vim's status: * A Lineage Forged by Constraints: Vim's core efficiency is not an abstract design goal but an evolutionary trait. Its modal interface, terse commands, and keyboard-centricity are direct solutions to the severe hardware and bandwidth limitations of the 1970s. These historical accidents produced a grammar of text manipulation that is, by its very nature, optimized for minimal effort and maximum precision. * A Superior Cognitive Model: Vim treats text editing as a language, not just a series of mechanical actions. Its verb + noun grammar allows users to express complex editing intent with concise, composable commands. This shifts the cognitive model from low-level manipulation to high-level declaration, reducing mental friction and allowing users to remain in a state of creative flow. * Unmatched Technical Virtues: Vim's three pillars—ubiquity, performance, and extensibility—make it an unparalleled practical tool. Its guaranteed presence on nearly every Unix-like system makes it indispensable for remote work. Its lightweight C implementation ensures blistering performance, even with massive files. And its deep customizability, through dotfiles and a vast plugin ecosystem, allows it to be perfectly tailored to any workflow, transforming it from a simple editor into a complete IDE. * A Sustainable Craft: The initial investment in learning Vim pays lifelong dividends in both productivity and physical well-being. Its ergonomic design minimizes the risk of repetitive strain injury, making it a sustainable tool for a long career. The stability and backward compatibility of its core interface ensure that the skills acquired are a permanent asset, not a temporary adaptation to a rapidly changing UI. 7.2 The Future of Modal Editing: Neovim and Beyond The Vim philosophy is not static. Its future and continued relevance are being actively shaped by projects like Neovim, a fork of Vim that aims to aggressively refactor the codebase for the modern era. Neovim is not a rejection of Vim's principles but rather their modern torchbearer. By introducing features like first-class Lua scripting, a more powerful plugin API, and better integration with modern development tools like the Language Server Protocol, Neovim has addressed many of Vim's architectural limitations. It has unleashed a new wave of innovation in the plugin ecosystem, ensuring that the modal editing paradigm remains not just relevant, but on the cutting edge of development technology. Perhaps the most compelling evidence of Vim's status as a gold standard is its profound influence on the entire software ecosystem. The ultimate testament to the power of its modal editing paradigm is the proliferation of "Vim mode" plugins for nearly every other major editor and IDE, from VS Code and Sublime Text to the entire suite of JetBrains products. The message is clear: while developers may choose other environments for their project management features or graphical interfaces, they consistently seek to import Vim's core editing model. Even its direct competitors implicitly acknowledge that for the fundamental act of manipulating text, the Vim way is the superior way. 7.3 Final Verdict: More Than an Editor, A Standard of Practice Vim is considered the gold standard not because it has the most features, the most intuitive interface for a novice, or the largest market share. It holds this title because it represents a benchmark of mastery and efficiency in the craft of text editing. It is a tool built on a deep and consistent philosophy, honed over half a century of continuous development and use. It demands more from its users, but in return, it offers a level of power, precision, and ergonomic sustainability that is unmatched. It is the standard against which other editors are measured, both in raw performance and in their philosophical approach to the human-computer interface. For the millions of developers, writers, and system administrators who have invested in its language, Vim is not merely a choice of text editor; it is the adoption of a standard of practice.

Life is a movie is quite a forgone conclusion ! The new insight is you are the hero of this movie 😜

Hey Knots ..if you want to provide few extra filters .. why fork ? Just create a an add on ... Or a plug in .. When you fork ..you are declaring a ideological divide ... Then you should NOT fork .. write your own code ..ground up ..

if you remove Identity , public open is the most private space .. You can test it .. create a new npub ..post on nostr .. no one will ever notice your note .. as if it is in the vault of a Swiss bank ... The problem this is NOT privacy tools .. The problem is you can't let go your ID ..

Clearly .. matters are settling between India and US .. View quoted note →

The whole point of implementing decentralization is to become the center ! And it is not a bad thing .. you need a force for centralization as much as the opposite .. there is no ONE good formula ..else universe would simply fly apart . O well .. it is flying apart .. universe is accelerating and with it it is adding loads of dark energy. .

Keep your gold in safe lock and key :-) View quoted note →

It is like starting a parallel Linux Kernel project .. View quoted note →

A decentralized core is a sure way to ossifie the #bitcoin protocol.. I mean it is impossible to make any change to Bitcoin even today when core has what 90 percent control .. good luck when you have fifty distros managing their own kernel !

Tell me creating #bitcoin is harder than #gold : # Gold on Earth: A Cosmic Journey from Stellar Forges to Terrestrial Veins The gold found on Earth was not created on our planet but is the product of cataclysmic cosmic events that occurred long before our solar system existed. This precious metal embarked on a remarkable journey, from the heart of dying stars to its eventual concentration in the veins of our planet's crust. ## The Celestial Ovens: Neutron Star Mergers For many years, supernovae—the explosive deaths of massive stars—were considered the primary source of heavy elements like gold. While these events do produce some heavier elements, recent scientific consensus points to a far more violent and specific origin for the bulk of the universe's gold: the collision of neutron stars. When two of these incredibly dense stellar remnants, the collapsed cores of massive stars, spiral into each other and merge in an event known as a kilonova, the conditions become extreme enough to forge the heaviest elements in the universe. This process, called the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process), involves atomic nuclei rapidly absorbing a flood of neutrons, leading to the creation of elements like gold, platinum, and uranium. These newly formed elements are then violently ejected into interstellar space. ## Delivery to Earth: A Late Veneer of Asteroids The primordial cloud of gas and dust that eventually formed our solar system was seeded with gold and other heavy elements from these ancient stellar explosions. However, during Earth's molten infancy, heavier elements, including the initial allotment of gold, sank deep into the planet's core, far beyond our reach. The accessible gold we find in the Earth's crust and mantle today is believed to have arrived much later. During a period known as the Late Heavy Bombardment, approximately 4 billion years ago, the young Earth was relentlessly pummeled by asteroids. These celestial bodies, remnants from the formation of the solar system, were rich in heavy elements and acted as a "late veneer," delivering a fresh supply of gold to the Earth's surface and upper layers. Geological Concentration: The Formation of Gold Deposits While gold was distributed across the Earth's crust by these impacts, it was initially present in very low concentrations. The formation of the mineable gold deposits we exploit today is the result of geological processes that have concentrated the metal over millions of years. The most significant of these processes is hydrothermal activity. Water, heated deep within the Earth's crust by magma, circulates through rock fractures. This hot, often acidic water dissolves trace amounts of gold and other minerals from vast volumes of rock. As these fluids rise towards the surface and cool, or when they undergo pressure and chemical changes, their ability to carry dissolved gold diminishes. The gold then precipitates out of the solution, often alongside quartz, and is deposited in veins or lodes within the rock. Over time, these geological systems can concentrate enough gold to form economically viable ore deposits. ## In summary, the gold on Earth is a testament to a violent cosmic history, forged in the spectacular collisions of neutron stars, delivered to our planet by ancient asteroids, and finally concentrated into the gleaming veins we treasure today by the patient work of geological forces.

Heads or Tails - it is #bitcoin

With #nostr #bitcoin and #AI available to everyone.. there is no more room for complaints If you are still cribbing about big tech or social media or predatory lending, or fed or fiat .. you are the problem cuz you can't say quits and focus what is right for you .. I mean #fitness and #faith

For it doesn't matter how you pray or praise the Lord ... the act is way more important than intent !

if you hate #Gold , next best bet is #Innovation #spy and #qqq are dead meat ! 10 ish percent ytd ..

Do you even know how much SATs you already earned on #nostr !

The idea that modern politics is bad .. becomes tolerable when you wrestle with an idea of living in a jungle ..

If you can find reasons to be unhappy despite open access to #nostr #bitcoin and #AI , then it is definitely not a technology problem 😭😭😭