Thread

On caring for user data: NeoVim caused Vim undo files to be deleted

384 points · 346 comments · jandeboevrie

fooblaster · 1790522817 · focus · HN ↗
How does one use persistent undo in vim?
1. fooblaster · 1790522930 · focus · HN ↗
  Talk about poor duty of care to users... been using him for 20 years and I have to enable it in my vimrc to take effect. So stupid. Why would I want this to be off?
  Such amazing design...
  " Enable persistent undo set undofile
  1. oblio · 1790523241 · focus · HN ↗
    Emacs and Vim are basically like that.
    They have very vocal and entrenched users so that practically no defaults can be changed lest the single Amiga user will start a huge uproar.
    And since they don't really have a BDFL or commercial pressure, they can be super detached even from standards or expectations that appeared 40 years ago.
    Neovim was basically a reaction to that, for Vim, where they updated defaults to stuff basically every Unix editor since 2005 has.
    tommyage · 1790601750 · focus · HN ↗
    Maybe neovim should advertise like: Your fully configurable vim instance as a full IDE on your developer machine, only.
    Driven by <3, passion and bravery.
    Anyhow; I switched back to vim after one year of neovim shrugs. Still a Junior, here.
  2. layer8 · 1790523826 · focus · HN ↗
    It’s somewhat important for privacy reasons that the feature is opt-in. I don’t know if that’s the reason historically, but I wouldn’t want a text editor to persistently store a copy of everything I type without my consent. It’s almost like a keylogger.
    Making privacy-sensitive features opt-in is a form of duty of care as well, to avert harm from the user.
    phoghed · 1790526112 · focus · HN ↗
    Edit history in JetBrains being on by default saved my bacon a few times over the years.
  3. b0ringdeveloper · 1790532276 · focus · HN ↗
    I prefer persistent undo being off. I like being able to hold down u and revert to exactly how the file was before I opened it. (Maybe there's a better way to do this?) With persistent undo on, it just keeps going and going. And if I need long term source control, that's what git is for. With persistent undo off, it's like opening the file creates a checkpoint that I can get back to easily.

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