Vimium: Vim Keyboard Shortcuts for Google Chrome | Hacker News Reader

Vimium: Vim Keyboard Shortcuts for Google Chrome

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55 pointsCieplak39 comments

I stopped using it as it conflicted with the key bindings of various websites such as Gmail, and because I want to use a desktop setup that does not impede me from using other computers. I mostly just need to scroll down (Space button), and focus the address bar (Alt+D) anyway. I think that way of selecting links is really cool, but I often found myself selecting the wrong one because of mistypes or misreads.

Just for what it's worth in case anyone's considering not trying Vimium on this basis, you can disable Vimium for selected sites by clicking on the V logo next to the navigation bar.

Also FWIW, but I find Vimium convenient just for j, k, J, K, G & gg on most sites. :)

Opera - vimoperate

covers some (your mentioned) basic functionality. However the Opera API is not as diverse, or wasn't at time of dev, afaik.

Vimium in fact heralded the downfall of Chrome for me. At first, I loved it. Finally, I thought, no more context switch between browser and editor!

Then I realized due to Chrome's design, when a page doesn't load and an internal error page appears, Vimium is never called. Then suddenly I've got to resort to ctrl+w and friends some of the time. After dealing this for a while it eventually became too annoying to even bother with.

Looking for alternatives, I stumbled across Pentadactyl[1]. Tried it for a few minutes and realized it was time to make the switch back to Firefox.

I've learned that in the end, for basic software like browsers, window managers & editors, consistency by far the most important attribute; Pentadactyl/Firefox really delivers on that end.

Further, in regards to the issue you describe, Pentadactyl offers the ^v command which enables pass-through mode, which sends all keys except escape to the site you're browsing.

[1] http://5digits.org

Same story for me. Used Pentadactyl until it started causing some performance issues. Now on Vimperator and my fingers couldn't be happier. I guess I didn't really need all the Vim-ness of Pentadactyl.

^v is to have a single key pass through and then return to normal mode, ^z actually enters pass through mode until you hit esc.

Good catch, meant ^z

I don't see how this would stop you from using other computers when you can sign into your chrome account anywhere and instantly have this extension installed. I can't relate to your reasoning here; I want my computers to work exactly how I want them to work as efficiently as possible with no compromises.

I've been using Vimium in Chrome/Chromium and Vimperator/Pentadactyl in Firefox for quite a while, it really transforms your browsing experience, changing it from a mouse-centric activity to a keyboard-centric one (with a significant increase in productivity). I highly recommend to anyone who is familiar with Vim.

Vimium recently started crashing my tabs on Javascript-heavy sites; I had to disable it, sadly.

Could you give some example sites? I'll look into it. Also, if it only crashes on a small set of sites, you could selectively disable Vimium on those sites via the browser action icon.

Facebook for one. Anything with a large number of anchors and forms absolutely kills the performance.

That's odd, I've never had a problem with FB. Does the performance get hit right when the page loads, or only when you press a certain command?

They're mostly internal corporate sites. Is there a way I can collect information (stack traces, etc.) for you instead? I didn't see any easy way to get postmortem data on a crashed tab.

May be an issue with your computer / config. I've been using Vimium for a long time and have never had it crash anything.

If you like vimium, pentadactyl and vimperator, but wished you could have them without chrome or firefox, check out uzbl, luakit and dwb - three examples of webkit based browsers that adhere to the UNIX philosophy of doing one thing well.

I've never really been able to get into Vim, but this is completely awesome! Especially on laptops, where scrolling and hitting links without a mouse is really annoying normally. (yes, I know, page up / down, but those scroll too much)

I showed my non-programmer/non-vim using friend this extension and he really loves it. Specifically the fF and T commands.

Vanilla Chrome keyboard shortcuts (For OS X) [1]:

  Command-W: Close tab
  Command-Shift-W: Close window
  Command-L: Focus omnibox
  Command-Enter (In omnibox): Open in new background tab
  Command-Shift-Enter (In omnibox): Open in new tab
  Delete or Command-[: Back
  Shift-Delete or Command-]: Forward
  Command-R: Reload
  Command-Shift-[ or Option-Command-Left: Previous tab
  Command-Shift-] or Option-Command-Right: Next tab
  Space: Scroll down
  Shift-Space: Scroll up
  Command-Down: Go to bottom
  Command-Up: Go to top

Selecting and activating links with the keyboard:

  Command-F: Show and focus find bar
  Enter or Command-G: Find next
  Shift-Enter or Command-Shift-G: Find previous
  Control-Enter: Activate highlighted link

This is limited, though; there is no way to open a link in a new tab, and find starts from the top of the page (bug?).

Personally, I find it more efficient and ergonomic to scroll and select links with my MBP's trackpad. Scrolling is especially fluid with two-finger smooth scrolling. Gestures and the changes to scrolling have allowed me to forgive a lot of weirdness about Lion and Mountain Lion.

[1]: http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ans...

I was able to type fSfa to open that link in a new tab and then open this reply box. My hands are usually on the home row, you are more comfortable having them on the trackpad. The benefit of using this plugin over a mouse is that I don't have to position the mouse over the link; I just press f then look at it on the screen and then press one or two more buttons.

You'd be wrong to think this is supposed to be "Vim running in your browser" - instead think of this as more efficient shortcuts for browsing. However, I'm using xmonad so this completely transformed my workflow to make nearly everything possible with only the keyboard. I was able to go a full day at the office without touching my mouse except to move it out of the way. I mostly use this plugin for navigation and have no complaints.

A few extra Vimium shortcuts I use every day that weren't mentioned in the article:

    F - open a link in a new tab
    T - search all tabs for a keyword (including minimised windows)
    x - close the tab
    X - restore the last closed tab

You can also see a help sheet with all of the available shortcuts by typing ?.

Firefox - Vimperator

There is a version of vimium for firefox too. I prefer using it so i don't have to think about the minor differences between vimperator and vimium when I switch browsers.

I found it very limited (just movement keys) even compared to Chrome vimium. You can remap vimperator (or pentadactyl) keys anyway. The only difference I remember was d (close tab) instead of x.

You might try Pentadactyl, a fork of Vimperator by the original authors.

Might be good to note that Pentadactyl doesn't currently work with FF15.

The Pentadactyl nightly works fine in Firefox 15

Those who are recommending Pentadactyl, can you explain why it's worth going through this installation hoop? I like to use FF beta (16 currently) but there is no Pentadactyl support. I use Vimperator.

pentadactyl. try the nightly builds for ff15 compatibility

It's a good way to practice (atleast some of the vim) commands without actually having to do that in vim.

in my eyes, emacs-w3m.el > firefox+vimperator > chromium+vimium

or w3m.vim I guess if that's your thing

conkeror beats everything. I find w3m way too slow and lacking too many features

I was using it for more than a year. Can't browse without it. Probably only for vim users.

I constantly find myself myself trying to use vim commands in the browser, never thought to look for an extension.

If you're a vim and Chrome user this is a must have. "/" for search and being able to navigate with the keyboard is worth the install alone.

The Xombrero browser (formerly called xxxterm) does a good job at this. I use it with the Awesome window manager and hardly ever touch the mouse.

vimium is more of a subset of pentadactyl(or vimperator). and makes it feel incomplete in comparision, if you are used to pentadactyl.

"clicking" on links by pressing f is super cool.

It should allow you to upload your own .vimrc, and map these keyboard shortcuts to the one you have specified.

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