---
author: twitter:nikolalsvk
link: https://medium.com/swlh/ultimate-vim-typescript-setup-35b5ac5c8c4e
date: August 2, 2023
rating: ⭐⭐
image: https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*1bqKunmuJ7norWgYfqQGYQ.jpeg
---
# Ultimate Vim TypeScript Setup. How and why to use Vim for TypeScript… | by Nikola Đuza | The Startup | Medium
#technology #coding #text-editors
Vim is great. I have been using different text editors and IDEs through years, and Vim stuck with me through all hardships and happy times. Maybe because I invested much time in learning and fine-tuning it to my needs that it became a part of me, a bit.

> _I love Vim. It’s not easy to use. I love Vim anyway._
> 
> _Maxin Cardamom_

With those lines, [one of the best Vim talks on YouTube starts](https://youtu.be/XA2WjJbmmoM?t=50). And it makes perfect sense. I remember being frustrated and asking why would anyone use Vim while I was learning it. But all that paid struggle off. If you are afraid of the Vim learning curve, I found this great [post](https://thoughtbot.com/blog/the-vim-learning-curve-is-a-myth) that proclaims you can learn Vim 30 minutes!

One of the main reasons why I use Vim as my editor is speed. And I do not mean the speed of writing code, which is also excellent. I am thinking of the reading speed of the code. Did you know that the [ratio of reading versus writing code is 10 to 1](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/835238-indeed-the-ratio-of-time-spent-reading-versus-writing-is). That means that you are regularly reading old code to write new code. And with Vim, **reading** and **finding** old code has been the easiest and fastest for me!

I will explain in another blog post which plugins and shortcuts I use, so be sure to [subscribe to the newsletter](https://pragmaticpineapple.com/newsletter).

## VSCode vs. Vim

A lot of folks are using [Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) for development. I do not blame them. I have used VSCode and [Visual Studio](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/) and it is one of the best software that came out of Microsoft!

Most recently, I have been using VSCode for writing (and reading) [TypeScript](https://www.typescriptlang.org/) code. Why you’d ask? Well, before I made an ultimate Vim TypeScript setup, I had to use VSCode. The only reason why I used VSCode, was that Vim was too slow for editing TypeScript files.

Luckily, I have upgraded Vim to [8.2 version](https://www.vim.org/vim-8.2-released.php), and it started to be blazing fast once again. I ditched VSCode and moved back to Vim and [my .vimrc](https://github.com/nikolalsvk/dotfiles/blob/master/.vimrc).

If you are thinking about the two, I would say to use Vim, but I am probably biased. [VSCodeVim](https://github.com/VSCodeVim/Vim) lets you combine the best of two worlds…