alt.hn

7/1/2026 at 6:00:07 PM

Learn Vim motions with an ice-cream van

 https://thisismodest.com/vimscoops/

by marcusmichaels

7/2/2026 at 10:28:36 AM

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.

by greengreengrass

7/2/2026 at 11:23:51 AM

Thanks for the feedback, the par is set based on the level, not the absolute best that can be achieved. I added 4r specifically as an example to get across being able to change multiple characters such as XXXX to YYYY.

Though I’m aware some keyboards might not be fully compatible yet so I’ll work on adding wider support.

EDIT: You’re right, I loosely included r but it’s not technically “motion”

by marcusmichaels

7/2/2026 at 1:00:52 PM

Thanks for following up! I had another play and I see what you mean about par, makes sense.

It would be great if the 4r perhaps isn't introduced until the game gets into the later stages of editing buffers – I think that would avoid repetitively introducing the same ideas before they can really be used.

Nice work though and nice idea.

by greengreengrass

7/2/2026 at 1:25:58 PM

I agree, will update it, thank you!

by marcusmichaels

7/2/2026 at 1:08:49 PM

Butting in to add: I'd prefer vim features always be available even if not yet introduced - you don't have to mention the existence of 'r', but keeping it available to my vim habits will cause less frustration to the experiences vimmer.

by jagged-chisel

7/2/2026 at 1:25:27 PM

I’ll add that in. Makes sense!

by marcusmichaels

7/2/2026 at 6:54:49 PM

Great game! Minor issue, the ^ isn't working ABNT2 keyboard on Linux (tested in both Chrome and Firefox). We need it in level=1-5.

by merganser

7/2/2026 at 2:06:38 PM

On the last exercise of world 6, rewrite the highlight, "cw" leaves the "a" at the end of the line. Both "c$" and "C" work. I didn't know about "C" until I read the web page - I've been using c$ for that.

by dunham

7/2/2026 at 2:37:07 PM

On World 6-3, if i use i.e. d3j to delete the 3 lines it deletes the current line + the 3 below. Vim generally treats commands like that as "do this X times including the current line", so it should delete the current line and the 2 lines below.

by drw85

7/2/2026 at 5:35:09 AM

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.

by nehal3m

7/2/2026 at 9:49:29 AM

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).

[0] https://www.homerow.app/

by rpozarickij

7/2/2026 at 5:41:03 PM

Legitimately helpful for helping me wrangle eVil mode on Doom Emacs. Thanks!

by arikrahman

7/2/2026 at 9:23:26 AM

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'.

by rhetenor

7/2/2026 at 1:27:27 PM

Appreciate the suggestions, I’ll open up the letters so undo works on all the levels, and will look into the navigation (really like that idea)

by marcusmichaels

7/2/2026 at 4:01:46 PM

I visited on an iPhone, I wasn’t expecting the game to work, but there’s an on screen keyboard you can toggle which works great. Greatly appreciated.

by hjkl0

7/1/2026 at 9:25:01 PM

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. (-:

by JdeBP

7/2/2026 at 2:31:22 PM

I think the reason to use and teach those keys first, is that they can be used in all the motions aswell. The arrow keys can´t and thus do not really make much sense in a vi context.

by drw85

7/2/2026 at 6:33:24 AM

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.

by tokamak-teapot

7/2/2026 at 8:01:49 AM

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.

- [1] http://learnvimscriptthehardway.stevelosh.com/

by alexhans

7/2/2026 at 10:11:39 AM

I always wonder about the choice of hjkl, because don't people normally rest their hands one row to the left, on jkl;?

by zavec

7/2/2026 at 12:04:13 PM

Doesn’t the act of reaching for the mouse actually creates a natural moment of wrist relaxation? A fixed wrist position creates static muscle tension.

by piekvorst

7/2/2026 at 6:40:54 AM

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.

by eska

7/2/2026 at 9:59:38 AM

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.

by throw-the-towel

7/2/2026 at 7:21:48 AM

but what if i learned to type Colemak?

by jldugger

7/2/2026 at 7:45:36 AM

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.

by adrian_b

7/2/2026 at 10:03:26 AM

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.

by flexagoon

7/2/2026 at 7:34:39 AM

At that point does your keyboard even still have arrow keys?

by eska

7/2/2026 at 6:42:46 AM

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__.

by johncoltrane

7/2/2026 at 10:06:08 AM

How are they "not that touch-typing-friendly" when they're literally the keys that are always under your fingers when touch typing?

by flexagoon

7/2/2026 at 12:33:10 PM

jkl; are (on QWERTY keyboards). hjkl are not.

by johncoltrane

7/2/2026 at 1:05:15 PM

Idk, I get what you mean but I'd personally rather not use my pinky finger for navigation, sounds really uncomfortable.

by flexagoon

7/2/2026 at 2:18:35 PM

hjkl AND the cursor keys equally suck for moving the cursor because they only move by one line or by one character.

jjjllllljjh is just as bad as <Down><Down><Down><Right><Right><Right><Right><Right><Down><Down><Left>. There are much better ways to move around and touch-typists and non-touch-typists would be better off learning them instead of obsessing over hjkl: :help motion.txt.

by johncoltrane

7/2/2026 at 12:24:03 PM

Bro be using two mice with a screen keyboard.

by magackame

7/2/2026 at 9:04:41 AM

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).

by tidbeck

7/2/2026 at 11:25:05 AM

Thank you, I’m planning to increase keyboard support. There’s also a few little bugs I need to iron out!

by marcusmichaels

7/2/2026 at 1:05:46 PM

For some reason I really want this on some retro hardware in ASCII art ... an excuse to get a C64 Ultimate?

by jagged-chisel

7/2/2026 at 11:54:43 AM

Fun! There are some combinations that don't seem to work though, e.g. "dG" and "dgg" do nothing.

by Liquid_Fire

7/2/2026 at 1:28:57 PM

Yeah, that’s on me. Sorry. I’m slowly introducing motions so they currently don’t all work in combination, but it makes sense so I’ll look into it

by marcusmichaels

7/2/2026 at 11:05:51 AM

Looks pretty neat but it doesn't seem to register the '^' key at all with a German keyboard.

by sid_talks

7/2/2026 at 11:24:19 AM

Thank you, I’ll work on adding support for more keyboards :)

by marcusmichaels

7/2/2026 at 8:37:41 AM

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.

by lanycrost

7/2/2026 at 11:25:37 AM

Vim Adventures was a huge inspiration for this!

by marcusmichaels

7/2/2026 at 6:32:59 AM

Every roguelike player has these bolted in. Just play Nethack/Slashem/DCSS/Cataclysm DDA:Bright Nights...

by anthk

7/1/2026 at 7:56:02 PM

Can I go to the place where the Mu-Mu mate and the children still cry "Mine's a 99!"?

by bitwize