Question

Longtime vim users, do you keep your fingers onjkl; or hjkl in normal mode?

Standard touch typing teaches us the home position for the right hand has the index finger on the j key, so your fingers are on jkl;.

But standard vim motion keys are hjkl.

I’m getting back into vim after 10+ years ^{(omg, I got old when I wasn’t paying attention)} and find myself gravitating towards hjkl … but that makes it harder to type upper-right letters, braces, etc. I’d like to train myself to use the most efficient/pragmatic method now instead of having to re-train later.

Longtime, hardcore vim users, what’s the best practice?

---

Note:

1. Bigger overlap with How do touch typists navigate in vi?
2. I think this passes the “subjective” test because it’s about deliberately cultivating an unconscious best-practice and not simply about people’s preference

Answer 1

I think that jkl; is actually the more appropriate usage for vi. For one, h and l really don’t matter that much. w, e, and b are significantly more useful for horizontal navigation. As a bonus, ; is easy to get at if the language requires it. Having a weaker finger on k hurts, and you don’t need your strongest finger on the h, when it should be on the j which is probably the most used of the four.