For what it's worth vim has been my main editor now for 2+ years and I still don't use hjkl. I know I should, but I can't seem to get over the hump that I can easily find arrow keys by feel, but not hjkl.
As for remembering them, left and right are on the outside, and 'j' kind of looks like a down arrow (that's how I distinguish j from k)
I've been using Vim for something like a decade, and I only recently started toying with hjkl. At first, I ignored it because I was already pretty good with the arrow keys and hjkl are annoyingly not quite the home keys; then I ignored it because I switched to Dvorak and hjkl are scattered across the keyboard.
Strangely, it was Google+ that got me interested in hjkl, or at least J and K for moving up and down. In the Dvorak layout, J and K are where C and V are in QWERTY, so they're still pretty convenient to reach for.
You can just remap the arrow keys to do nothing in vim, and within a few days or so you'll be comfortable with hjkl. It's not a big deal - just do this if you want it.
You should start using j and k in other places like gmail to start getting used to it. I know it takes some work, but I think it is totally worth the effort.
Comments
For what it's worth vim has been my main editor now for 2+ years and I still don't use hjkl. I know I should, but I can't seem to get over the hump that I can easily find arrow keys by feel, but not hjkl.
As for remembering them, left and right are on the outside, and 'j' kind of looks like a down arrow (that's how I distinguish j from k)
I've been using Vim for something like a decade, and I only recently started toying with hjkl. At first, I ignored it because I was already pretty good with the arrow keys and hjkl are annoyingly not quite the home keys; then I ignored it because I switched to Dvorak and hjkl are scattered across the keyboard.
Strangely, it was Google+ that got me interested in hjkl, or at least J and K for moving up and down. In the Dvorak layout, J and K are where C and V are in QWERTY, so they're still pretty convenient to reach for.
You can just remap the arrow keys to do nothing in vim, and within a few days or so you'll be comfortable with hjkl. It's not a big deal - just do this if you want it.
You should start using j and k in other places like gmail to start getting used to it. I know it takes some work, but I think it is totally worth the effort.