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Use Vim Like A Pro

tottinge.blogsome.com

301 pointstelemachos91 comments

Pet peeve: Vim should be spelled "Vim," not "VIM."(1) Consistency in case would also make it easier to read in my opinion, Vim/VIM seem to be used interchangeably throughout the article.(2) Other than that, this is a good crash course. =)

1 See spelling in use at http://www.vim.org/about.php

2 "Vim has a small footprint in RAM and on the CPU. A given system can support a great many VIM users at once."

Thats exactly what I like about Vim.. Small footprint is really great on an multi user environment or when editing or viewing large files like logfiles.

I was used to editing files over ssh with Vi, but after they improved;) I was hooked on Vim forever. Vim really is an absolute a must-have skill in your toolbox.

I don't think executable size makes a huge difference for this type of application. All static sections of a given binary is shared among all users; code, globals, and shared libraries. Even the non-static parts are copied on write.

He was quoting an excerpt from the article to illustrate the usage Vim/VIM inter-changably.

Sorry, the technical errors were more glaring to me than spelling.

There's a myriad of vim-tutorials around the Net, but I find that people usually tend to forget that vim has a built-in tutorial. Of all the ones I've found, this is really one of the best. Most importantly, it's interactive, and I'm a 'learning-by-doing' person. Just type `vimtutor` at the command prompt (also `gvimtutor`.)

Not to diminish on the author's efforts. The tutorial he wrote taught me about vim's capabilities in directory mode — I would usually just quit every time I accidentally ended up in it.

Another important vim tip for me that wasn't in there and might be one for the author himself: you can use ctrl-C or ctrl-[ instead of ESC to exit insert mode. This, combined with re-mapping capslock to control, is a big, big win.

Thank you!

You can remap ESC to whatever you need. I prefer CTRL+s == ESC:

    inoremap <C-s> <ESC>
    vnoremap <C-s> <ESC>

It's also common to remap ii to exit insert mode, that way "i" puts you in, "ii" takes you out.

Personally, I remapped caps lock to esc, because I don't like the way the editor lags when typing an "i" after "ii" has been remapped, but Caps-->Ctrl has the additional benefit of making other Ctrl-Foo sequences easy.

  > Personally, I remapped caps lock to esc, because I don't like the
  > way the editor lags when typing an "i" after "ii"

That's the problem with mapping non-Ctrl/Alt sequences in Insert mode. Even thing like bindings that automatically insert a closing } (with auto-indent) when you type the opening { are really annoying because they are commonly bound to the sequence "{<Enter>". So when you type { without <Enter> there is a delay while it waits to see if you're going to hit <Enter>.

How would one insert the string 'ascii'?

very slowly

You can always force a literal insertion via ctrl-v. So,

asc<C-v>i<C-v>i

in insert mode.

but be sure to choose something you won't mind typing in regular non-vim contexts as well, as you'll eventually pick up a habit of hitting your <esc> equivalent pretty much whenever you stop to think. <ctrl-w> would be a horrible choice :)

I personally just remap capslock to ESC directly. I'm in vim a large majority of the time that I'm working, so it's a very big jump in productivity for me.

Ctrl-c and ctrl-[ are not the same. There are times when latter completes the insert session (same as esc) while the former aborts it, e.g. visual block insertion with (ctrl-v jjjj I)

Also, the happy haacking keyboard already puts control in its proper place and puts esc where ~ normally is, which is close enough that you don't really need to remap it. Best vim keyboard ever.

It's more helpful to think of ctrl-[ as an analog to ESC (this also works in Emacs, irssi, etc as well IIRC). Ctrl-c just happens to work for exiting Insert mode because ctrl-c is the 'abort' command, and technically Insert mode is an operation.

Insert mode is not Vim's 'normal' mode. When you enter Insert Mode, you are basically saying, "I'm stepping out of normal mode for a bit to enter some text here." In this sense, hitting ctrl-c is telling Vim that you're aborting your insert operation. (Though I could just be talking out of my ass, and it was just bound that way as a convenience)

keyboard already puts control in its proper place and puts esc where ~ normally is, which is close enough that you don't really need to remap it

Unicomp makes a Model M that does this as well, very worthwhile if you are a vim or Emacs user: http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/linux101.html

Some vim users also remap their caps lock to Esc (modify ~/.Xmodmap on linux, also doable on Windows and Mac), whereas Emacs users will probably remap their caps lock to Ctrl.

Most Vim users that I know map CapsLock to Ctrl and just use C-[ (or C-c situation permitting) for Esc

| situation permitting

Yep, that's good 'ol vim for you.

I remapped esc to jj based on some excellent blog post I recently read and I love it. Will get the link or post how if anyone is interested.

Was it this one:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1687701

I did the same thing, based on that post.

Edit: er, maybe not that one, can't find it in the page. Could have sworn that was it though...

Probably this one: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1710702

That's where I picked it up, too :-)

Incidentally I also remap jh to write & exit insert mode (inoremap jh <ESC>:w<cr>). This turns out to be super helpful for web development, which often requires that you hop over to a browser after modifying code.

It may not have quite the same effect but

   :au FocusLost * :wa

should autosave when you switch to the browser without requiring keypresses.

Only when using gVim.

This gets annoying sometimes if you're working in an unnamed file. If you haven't saved yet, or don't intend to (just a scratch buffer or something) it throws an error every time you switch contexts.

I have mapped hh (jj on a QWERTY) to ESC.

Vim is ancient yet its idea can be quite advanced: we have 10 fingers so why not use as many of them as possible?

It's like a puppet master wiring her fingers to fully express herself through the puppet. In the case of programming, Vim is the wire and the puppet is the code.

Isn't it Emacs that encourages you to use all ten fingers at the same time?

Typically in the form of fists pounding against the keyboard.

No, Emacs encourages the growth of a sixth digit on the left hand.

If you enjoyed this, you should definitely check out http://http://vimcasts.org.

I caught Drew's talk at Arrrrcamp on Friday and he is a fantastic explicator. His Vim book for PragProg should be excellent.

http://vimcasts.org And thanx for great site!

If you're learning Vim, I highly recommend installing Vimium for Chrome.

It's an amazing plugin that brings Vim-like keyboard mappings to the browser, making it significantly easier to build muscle memory.

http://vimium.github.com/

Or for Firefox - vimperator. http://vimperator.org/vimperator

Safari - vim. http://github.com/mutle/vim.safariextension

Only a few keybindings, but I only really use it for the j/k page navigation.

(Note: it does get overwritten by pages with their own keyboard navigation (flickr, tumblr's dashboard, ffffound, etc.))

Or Pentadactyl - an improved fork of vimperator by it's most active developers. Probably the only thing keeping me from using Chrome as my main browser http://dactyl.sourceforge.net/pentadactyl/

Or Pentadactyl, a Vimperator fork: http://dactyl.sourceforge.net/pentadactyl/

I'm trying it but I don't find the way to enter insert mode... :i, doesn't work, am I missing something?

I might've found this out through HN, in which case this'll be redundant. Still, I'll risk it: http://vimcasts.org/ is a good resource.

This fellow puts up bite-sized, five minute screencasts of various Vim-related features. Some of the 'casts are more advanced, and some of them are pretty basic.

I recently switched to vim (macvim), and one thing bugs me that maybe someone knows a fix for . . .

The padding between the left edge of the window (or the right edge of the line numbers) and the interior text it ~0. I'd like just a little padding.

anyone?

  :help numberwidth

Ah, I was too quick to reply. Sorry.

I do not know if it's possible to do what you want. I find that a slight variation in background color (:highlight LineNr) helps in distinguishing the numbers from the content.

It may be macvim specific, vim doesn't look as bad. I can distinguish text from line numbers, but it bugs me that they touch.

I posted to superuser with an image to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

http://superuser.com/questions/205553/how-can-i-add-some-pad...

It's the same in terminal vim. A fix could be to change the background of the linenumbering to something less obtrusive.

Example: http://tinypic.com/r/f0u84/7

great idea, worked like a charm. Thanks.

You can make use of the foldcolumn. The fold column is an optionally visible column that can be put between line numbers and text. It is generally used to show markers to indicate level of folding, if any. If you want to use it to create separation between line numbers and text, but don't want to see the folding markers, just set the foreground color of the fold column to be same as the background color. So something like this:

:set foldcolumn=3 (or 4 or 5 or what4ever. . . )

:hi FoldColumn guifg=black guibg=black

That should do it.

That helps if you don't have numbers, but I'm getting the padding left of my line numbers.

Is there a way to swap the foldcolumn to the left of line numbers?

Very sorry, my mistake. I thought I had checked and confirm that it did appear to the right and I must have looked too quickly. No, I don't think there is a way to swap those columns. (At least not through Vim 7.2, Vim 7.3 introduced relative line numbering and maybe it has a teak in addition to that -- but I doubt it.) It's not too hard to adjust line indenting so it defaults to minimum that is greater than 1, say 2 or 3, but that would be sort of an ugly hack, inserting blank spaces into your document for mere purpose of viewing more space between line column and text.

http://stevelosh.com/blog/2010/09/coming-home-to-vim/

Doesn't look like anyone's posted this link as yet.

This was on HN a while back (assuming posted == 'posted this article' and != 'posted this in the comments').

Also, :x is the short version of :wq(also available in vi). And some people put their rc files up on github, here is my vimrc file: http://github.com/wei23/dotfiles/blob/master/.vimrc I cherry-picked a lot of useful features from different vimrc files on github and dotfiles.org

I use emacs daily, but enjoy vi(m) on the side occasionally. Nice tips!

Another Vim tip: plugins can be amazingly useful.

The NERD Tree plugin gives you a directory tree that lets you easily move between files and do filesystem operations.

http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1658

TextMate is getting older and older. I would like to try something else, but I haven't yet found another editor with a sane file/folder sidebar, which is a must for me. Any tips? The sidebars I've seen for emacs and vim either look lika crap or use too big a font for them to be practical.

NerdTree

Check out Command-T also. Good discussion here:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1688500

Looks like a great tutorial. Covers a lot of ground that others don't (such as the star command, windowing commands, ctags use, etc.).

Vim certainly has a lot of ninja editing moves (however, I don't think my development speed is particularly limited by my raw text editing speed).

If you program, please try SnipMate.vim. There are plenty more very helpful plugins, but this one is great and is programmable. And don't forget pathogen.vim. Yankring, command-T or fuzzyfinder, surround, repeat, align, ack and fugitive are others i recommend.

The ultimate Vim tip? Use GNU Emacs. Seriously.

Vim is a great editor, it just lacks a decent implementation; GNU Emacs is a great OS, it just lacks a great editor. GNU Emacs + Viper + Vimpulse is what you should learn and use for maximum effectiveness.

Awesome! I learned about zt, zb, zz, ^x ^f, and ^x ^i today. They'll definitely come in handy.

Its amazing that after having read probably hundreds of Vim tutorials / guides every user is able to learn something completely new from every one of them. It sure scales.

This one brought ^T and ^D for indenting in insert mode to me, and starting with -o/O as argument for opening multiple files in splits.

One of the best resources for learning more about vim is the various .vimrc files on github

A simple http://github.com/search?&q=vimrc is a goldmine for mastery.

I learned cw, and it blew my mind.

You should give ci' or ci( or ci[ or ci" a try. (You could also use ci) or ci] if you prefer.)

Do it on a line where there is a pair of quotes, parens, brackets, etc.

Also cit/cat in HTML.

also, ciw which I use far more often than cw (don't need to be on beginning of word to change the whole thing). I like how all the ci commands always elicit a "whoa, what did you just do?" from people watching me edit.

It's this kind of magic that attracted me to Vim in the first place. I watched a professor doing that stuff in front of class and my jaw dropped. The circle was complete when a coworker watching me modify some code had a similar reaction. (Sadly I did not convert him.)

More information: http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/motion.html#object-sel...

There is also http://jvi.sourceforge.net/ a netbeans module with vim like behavior. Surprisingly, it has a lot of stuff.

I'm in the Emacs camp. However, vi has a certain minimalistic efficiency to it for development. Let me add that a pro might want to quit with :x instead of :wq.

It's probably best to learn a bit of both, but specialize in one. Especially since common tools like `less` use vim bindings. Examples:

* `less +23 file.txt` opens the file in less at line 23

* Searching in less works just like vim:

  /  -- starts a forward search
  ? -- starts a backward search
  n -- cycle through matches forward
  N -- cycle through matches backwards

 * Some movement keys are shared:

  gg -- go to the top of the file
  G  -- to go the bottom of the file

... etc ...

Wow that's cool...what other tools do that sort of thing?

How do I contact the other of this piece?

"Yank from the current character to the end of the line into register y"

should be:

"yy$

instead of

"y$

The author is Tim Ottinger. You can find him on Twitter[1] for example, pretty easily.

[1] http://twitter.com/#!/tottinge

I always remap 'Y' to 'yank to end of line.' I mean, 'D' is 'Delete/cut to end of line,' why not have to same thing for yank?

I've always remapped WW to save without quitting. I'm not sure why ZZ is standard but not something like WW.

Tip: 'vim -x filename.txt' asks for password and encrypts the file :-)

set cryptmethod=blowfish in 7.3 to really encrypt it.

What's the best way to jump to the implementation of a symbol in vim?

   /symbol

Oh, it's a metacharacter?

   /\meta

\ escapes metacharacters

Tag searching. I don't remember what key combination, though - my fingers remember for me.

It's in the docs. Essential.

Look into ctags as others mentioned. Also, while over a word you can press * to jump to the next occurrence of that word. Press n for the next, etc.

ctags + fuzzyfinder plugin gives you TextMate like symbol lookup. (there's another textmate-like plugin whose name escapes me that's a bit more faithful to the TextMate lookup.)

I remapped 'hjkl' to 'jkl;' and never looked back.

spectacular. now where's 'use emacs like a pro'?

emacs has a text editor too? I always just used it as an irc client... (http://delysid.org/emacs/erc.html)

http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/EmacsCrashCourse is fairly good for a quick introduction to similar ways of doing things in emacs. =)

An IRC client? Funny, I thought it was personal organizer.

Emacs is self-documenting, so you only need two things to use Emacs like a pro -- Emacs, and your brain.

The first thing a new Emacs user should do is to peruse the Emacs manual. You won't remember every detail, of course, but you should at least have a basic idea of what sorts of operations are available.

Then, start editing text. When you do something that seems tedious, you're doing it wrong. Try to remember back to the section of the manual that has something to do with what you were doing. Then read that section. Now try to redo the operation, but "the Emacs way" instead of the tedious way you invented yourself.

Do this several times a day.

Now you're an expert.

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