So, I've been using gedit this whole time

This is my coming out. I'm 31. I've been programming since I was 16, but all this time, I've never learned how to use a "proper" text editor.

It's probably because as a teenager, I grew up with Windows 98, and on that platform, back then, command-line tools were very much second-class citizens. In university, I was introduced to Linux and somehow, over the years, I became hooked. I spent a total of 11 years in university, and over that course, I probably wrote over 400K lines of code. Most of it on Linux, and most of it using a text editor called gedit.

It's the GNOME text editor. Its noteworthy features are syntax highlighting, and the ability to have multiple tabs open at once. It's a fairly shitty text editor. It will freeze up if you try to open a text file more than a few hundred kilobytes, or with lines that are too long for it to properly digest. If you were to think of emacs as a sushi meal prepared by an experienced chef, then you could think of gedit as a microwaved bowl of ramen with a half cup of sriracha sauce dumped on it. I had the ramen right here at home, no cash on hand, and well, I was hungry.

I think the problem is, in university, there was never any class that was really about teaching us how to properly and effectively use tools. I learned about programming languages, operating systems, compiler design, and all those wonderful things, but all this time, I was never given the opportunity to sit down and think about the tools I was using. The craftsmanship of programming, so to speak. I started using gedit because it was the default on the Linux distro my university ran at the time. I stuck with it because of habit.

During my undergrad, we were given assignments with tight deadlines. We worked our asses off. Some semesters, I remember having as much as 40 hours of homework per week. Needless to say, there was a lot of pressure. Pressure to get things done quickly given tight assignment deadlines, I didn't really feel like spending 10 or 20 hours familiarizing myself with vi or emacs, or dealing with people who would tell me to go RTFM (Read the Fucking Manual). I went with gedit because it was intuitive and comfortable, as shitty as it was.

At my current workplace, we run macOS, and well, while there is a port of gedit (not even kidding), it's a fairly miserable experience. The macOS port of gedit is like one of those freak creatures in a horror movie that begs you to pkill -9 it. Not knowing where to run, I started using the GitHub atom editor. It's alright, but like gedit, it has its annoying quirks.

I'm 31, and I can't help but want to take a step back. I don't know how to use vim, but I think I'd like to learn. I can appreciate that a lot of thought was put into its design. It's not a gimmicky gadget, it's a powerful tool: a programmer's text editor. I'm trying to convince myself that the time investment is worth it. At the very least, I can appreciate that vim is much more cross-platform, and stable across time, than any other text editor I've ever put up with.