vim-which-key VS vim-rsi

The only Vim distro I'm aware of is SpaceVim (https://spacevim.org/). I just tested it for a short time but it couldn't compete with my hand crafted settings ;-) But I'm using some of the plugins of SpaceVim in my setup, eg. vim-which-key and vista.vim.

Sounds like you want vim-which-key and coc.nvim.

> even though I'm a terminal user ... I really like the discoverability of GUIs, and that's where a good GUI is unbeatable by CLI.

CLI has poor discoverability? Sure; but even on the terminal, discoverability can still be good:

A couple of nice examples of discoverability in keyboard-focused programs:

- emacs' which-key[0]; there's a vim port[1] too. This shows you (some) of the available keybindings for the next input, and a short label. So you don't have to remember what `SPC h p ...` or all the options under `SPC f...`.. but it still helps to recall that `SPC h` is for 'help' related commands, `SPC f` for file related commands.

- emacs' magit[2][3]. Magit is so good at discoverability, that I'd rate it as the best tool for using git with. I've learned more about git from using it.

[0] https://github.com/justbur/emacs-which-key

[1] https://github.com/liuchengxu/vim-which-key

[2] https://magit.vc/

[3] https://emacsair.me/2017/09/01/magit-walk-through/

Agreed, that's the only time I find missing Emacs' which-key. (Looks like there is https://github.com/liuchengxu/vim-which-key for this.)

I think you mean a plugin which shows available key bindings as you type, which is what vim-which-key does.

Just an extension.

It is https://github.com/liuchengxu/vim-which-key if you are interested.

>Were you also able to replicate the small popups that open when you press `m`, `g`, etc.?

Yes, although 'm' has a totally different meaning in vim (placing a mark), so there is no popup for that. But it works where there are actually sensible choices, even for marks it works and shows you every available one, which is pretty cool

But again, that's not a specifically vim issue, its endemic to TUIs (hence bash completions and all the other hacks to make discoverability accesible). As well, there are some projects to ameliorate this in vim like the which-key family of plugins01 and others like them.

__usability features__ Emacs has a lot of great ideas for usability, some of which have been copied to vim like which-key https://github.com/folke/which-key.nvim https://github.com/liuchengxu/vim-which-key

Printing cheat sheets is helpful. At some point, make your own. which-key.nvim (or vim-which-key) is a plugin I wish I had found years ago. It gives you hints of next keys available to press. It's great for beginners, and experts. It's like the ultimate real-time cheatsheet.

that however may lead to suffering. You will have to change a lot of defaults and this can make you unable to work with default Vim. Try out https://github.com/tpope/vim-rsi and see if that will suffice.

I use vim.rsi by te legendary tpope.

You can you this plugin to get the same mappings in insert mode for Vim:

https://github.com/tpope/vim-rsi

You may be able to emulate it with cnoremap. See vim-rsi which is the set -o emacs version of what you want (but it also applies in insert mode).

I heavily rely on tpope/vim-rsi, which will provide you with to hop to the end of the line in insert mode

Look no further than the vim plugin master himself, Tim Pope: https://github.com/tpope/vim-rsi

I would just define whatever "standard text-editing keyboard shortcuts" you want in insert mode, and then just use insert mode as your "vim for note-taking". Kind of like Tim Pope's RSI but with the "standard" key bindings you want instead of bindings based on Emacs/readline.