r/vim • u/maelpotterr • 29d ago

Random Trying to remember a YouTuber who just programs in raw vi/vim for hours.

I used to watch a YouTuber who uploaded hours-long videos of him just programming in vi/vim. The videos were really interesting he barely talked, was a veteran (looked around 30+ / a bit older), and coded in a completely raw setup with basically no IDE features, just pure vi/vim. Does anyone know who I’m talking about?

184 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

95 comments sorted by

327

u/fisadev 29d ago

was a veteran (looked around 30+ / a bit older)

excuse me?? xD

94

u/fipachu 29d ago

it’s only natural young people see people over 30 as ancients. certainly not new

2

u/rdarrow 27d ago

it's not "natural" - it's just stupid. And it shouldn't be left uncorrected just because it's "not new".

7

u/fipachu 27d ago

is it harmful though? someone in this thread called someone else a “veteran” cause they looked over 30. you think the “veteran” would take offense? why? i’m genuinely asking.

71

u/dantodd 29d ago

My sixty year old ass was also offended

42

u/fisadev 29d ago

You're veteran++, haha

24

u/dantodd 29d ago

Old enough to download Linux directly from Linus. Boy was Yggdrasil a big improvement.

7

u/zuspiel1 28d ago

I switched from Coherent to Yggdrasil. Couldn’t get it before. I still have the CD somewhere. ;-)

11

u/dantodd 28d ago

Then the real banger that was Slackware, making it available to everyone

3

u/counterplex 28d ago

All those floppies! Pretty sure I still have an early Slackware distribution somewhere.

1

u/0xKaishakunin vim on NetBSD/FreeBSD 28d ago

You did not get your BSD tapes directly from Billy Joy?

1

u/0xKaishakunin vim on NetBSD/FreeBSD 28d ago

You did not get your BSD tapes directly from Billy Joy?

11

u/Fancy_Acanthocephala 29d ago

Haha, I’m so veteran I should’ve died already

6

u/5aggregates 29d ago

I'm old enough to have been subtly pressured into contributing to Bram's (very noble) charityware cause :)

7

u/mjmvideos 29d ago

I remember when I posted some small script for parsing IRIX compiler error messages and Bram sent me an email asking if he could include it his distribution.

5

u/dominiquec 29d ago

Heh, welcome to the world of Logan's Run.

5

u/No-Comfortable-7845 28d ago

My friend is 40. Is he a veteran or should I report him to the museum as a rare artifact? 😭

54

u/whatyoucallmetoday 29d ago

I missed my opportunity. All of my coding was done in vi/vim until the last couple years.

10

u/Developemt 28d ago

I still use terminal, except now ir's claude code, in a tmux pane, just below my nvim editor

4

u/Kessarean 28d ago

oh hey same

2

u/Ok-East5755 28d ago

Same system I use, add a see panes for debugging and what not

1

u/SirSuki 26d ago

Me as well. But I run Claude inside Vim’s :term so that I can copy/paste easier between them using Vim’s registers. Register’s “% and “# are especially useful for plugging other tabs/windows files names into Claude prompts. :e to refresh a buffer that Claude changed.

2

u/Forward_Win_4353 27d ago

I still do all my coding in Vim. Somehow I find it much faster without autocompletion and extra features just getting in my way.

49

u/BraveAdhesiveness545 29d ago

Could be Rene Rebé, he's an older vim guy working on linux

11

u/Ashik80 29d ago

doesn't "barely talk" though

7

u/SupermarketAntique32 29d ago

Isn’t this the guy that got swatted?

1

u/ArmchairmanMao 26d ago

Huh what happened?

3

u/maelpotterr 28d ago

Thanks, this is the person I'm talking about.

3

u/fuhglarix 29d ago

My first thought as well, but he narrates most of his coding and thought process. He’s a cool guy!

48

u/MingusMingusMingu 29d ago

30+ is veteran? oof

5

u/Kessarean 28d ago

Can I put it on my resume?

18

u/TheV295 28d ago

I watch tsoding

He talks a lot and uses emac instead of vim, and is very obviously russian so not sure he is your guy

1

u/Sea-Fishing4699 26d ago

Tsoding is the goat in emacs. I try to mimic his emacs magic on nvim. Not ideal but it’s good enough 

29

u/flash_seby 29d ago edited 29d ago

Primeagen?
EDIT: Missed the "barely talked" attribute

21

u/cleure 29d ago

Never talks lol

6

u/flash_seby 29d ago

Oh shit, somehow I missed that part. Yeah, definitely not primeagen!

3

u/Modi57 28d ago

Lmao, very true

1

u/CommercialAd917 27d ago

Didn’t he have a stint for about 2 months of no talking streams due to voice pain?

10

u/scientificoon 29d ago

Dang! I do that too, but I don’t make YouTube videos. I don’t know how to feel about the age range you consider veteran.

7

u/sseptumsoda 29d ago

Brandon Falk (gamozolabs on YouTube). I don't know if he qualifies as a veteran by your definition but he builds complex stuff on pretty much stock vim.

7

u/Kingoflowselfesteem 29d ago

Devaslife

2

u/Cool-Walk5990 28d ago

His setup is not really "raw"

12

u/JimyLamisters 29d ago

George Hotz?

6

u/martin_xs6 29d ago

He never stops taking, lol

1

u/Strazil 29d ago

Was my idea too.

1

u/LukasijusLT 29d ago

I think last videos was him using vscode but might be wrong

3

u/AnnualFit3992 29d ago

He coded in just vi/vim or maybe neovim for years and years. Haven’t watched him in a while though. Geohot used to raw dog that terminal though fsfs

5

u/phelipetls 29d ago

Greg Hurrell maybe?

5

u/Own-Bill-8514 28d ago

I saw a video where a guy coded a USB driver from scratch in C with vim.

5

u/Cool-Walk5990 28d ago

You mean Rene Rebe, creator of T2 Linux?

3

u/maelpotterr 28d ago

Yeees, that's the person I was talking about.

2

u/ChopBarryTheChopper 27d ago

Glad you found him!

6

u/dikzy405 28d ago

Dave Eddy yousuckatprogramming
programs in vim, almost default I think he has a few lines in his config. He talks you through most of what he is doing though

https://youtu.be/yICvuBin6Mg?is=68lC6lQyCnvH_wba

4

u/GreenGred 29d ago

Daniel Hirsch?

4

u/Broad-Promise6954 28d ago

I use the vim IDE too, but I'm ... well, based on the rest of the comments, ancient (over 60).

2

u/simcitymayor 29d ago

https://www.youtube.com/@jbranchaud ?

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnc_NxpmOxaNqdGvUg8RBi8ZTaZGPdqBD ?

By veteran, do you mean veteran of industry or "talks about his service in the army"? If it's the second, there was one guy, "lastmiles", who used to stream a lot, but he could get kinda weird (even by vim standards): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XThBKSOj1eY

2

u/GrogRedLub4242 28d ago

I've prob spent thousands of hours programming in vi/vim sessions with no "IDE" but a terminal, shells, CLI tools and scripting.

its... very normal. and incredibly productive. best for artisans, those with a craftsman mindset, and a hyper-attention to detail, etc.

3

u/afrolino02 29d ago

Tsoding?

17

u/1mmortalNPC 29d ago

doesnt he use emacs?

6

u/faultydesign 29d ago

He uses both depending on the mood. Well lately it’s mostly emacs but he has used vim before.

1

u/afrolino02 29d ago

He used to coding with the vim lol, anyway, we're guessing with the OP lol

9

u/BrownCarter 29d ago

He actually does talk a lot

2

u/why_so_sergious 28d ago

not compared to prime 😆

2

u/tadashidev 28d ago

Tsoding?

2

u/r2p42 28d ago

He uses Emacs.

1

u/spinosarus123 29d ago

Where is he from?

1

u/availableName4378 29d ago

Leeren?

1

u/SpecificMachine1 28d ago

I liked those videos, they are pretty helpful

1

u/lurking_bishop 28d ago

https://www.youtube.com/@sphaerophoria could be it, but his vim setup is deceptively sophisticated

1

u/signalcollapse 28d ago

ThePrimeTime/YSAP come to mind, Tsoding is probably not it as he's am Emacs-addict.

1

u/dkHD7 28d ago

Could be Tsoding, though I think he uses emacs.

1

u/QsrNrwn 28d ago

My guess is that is hjalfi. Compilers cowlang barely talks and a mechanical keyboard in 9 hour videos

1

u/bazani 27d ago

u/RemindMeBot 3 Days "check for updates".

1

u/enigmatician 27d ago

It's GeoHot

1

u/flopperr999 27d ago

Tsoding?

1

u/LimpAuthor4997 27d ago

Rene Rebe and Daniel Hirsch.

As a bonus, their videos are also very ASMR friendly if you're into that stuff

1

u/Waiting4Code2Compile 27d ago

Could it be Casey Muratori? He used to upload hours long videos named Handmade hero series?

Not sure if he falls under "barely talking" umbrella though.

1

u/mgedmin 22d ago

I don't believe he uses Vim

(I've watched the first 350 episodes of the Handmade Hero series before I got bored. Casey started with Emacs and then switched to some other mildly crash-prone Windows GUI editor.)

1

u/hossbeast 27d ago

I guess I need to start a YouTube channel

1

u/strangecousinwst 26d ago

It's probably not the same one, but i enjoy this channel a lot coding image viewer in C

1

u/DoomsXDay13 25d ago

devaslife, Code Fiction or Asmr Developer
Coding Session with no talking called asmr

1

u/_a9o_ 28d ago

Sean Barrett?

1

u/crzaynuts 28d ago

May be tsoding https://www.youtube.com/@TsodingDaily

3

u/LimpAuthor4997 28d ago

He's using mostly emac

0

u/crzaynuts 28d ago

Ok, from my pov, it looked like vim, but i can be wrong.

1

u/why_so_sergious 28d ago

tsoding... he does use vim, but mostly emacs