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Vim FAQ

vimhelp.appspot.com

43 pointssoheilhy15 comments

http://vimhelp.appspot.com/vim_faq.txt.html currently shows:

"This application is temporarily over its serving quota. Please try again later."

A Google search for "vim faq" shows:

http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/vimfaq.html

But it says the latest version is 6.3, which was released in 2004. I don't know whether there's a newer version of the FAQ.

The Hacker News effect! Thanks for the link.

This is useful, because the official links to the VimHelp format FAQ have gone dead:

http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/

You're taken to a Geocities dead page where you are rickrolled.

(For those who don't know what that is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickrolling)

The plain text version is broken, but the html version is right under it.

I usually just go to vim.org, click through to documentation and then FAQ, so I never noticed until now. I'll figure out how we can get the broken link removed.

Why hasn't anyone come up with a way to make these less hard on the eyes? Reading code in mono-spaced is divine, but reading prose in mono-spaced actually causes my brain to almost shut down and refuse to read. It's less bad in a terminal with a dark background, but on a white webpage, I really have issues.

Should be obvious, but think it's pretty rare for frontend / designer types to use Vim.

/me Looks around and notices that I'm a designer.

OK. Proposition. I've always wanted to a really nice tutorial / guidebook for Vim. I however, am not someone familiar with the guts of Vim, Vimscript and mostly just implement packages and pick up stuff as I go. If there is a coder-type person out there that is interested in working on the more technical bits, I'd be happy to style up the documents and make it presentable. I have experience writing, making videos and styling technical docs. You can see my work at http://www.webhook.com

Also, I should say I don't think this FAQ is a good intro to Vim. I think a better way to do it would be to present a chapter by chapter guide that gives people very easy earlier wins. To me, that means you focus on package installation and configs first, and then start working on movement and more advanced packages. Get people hooked on customization first, because the movement stuff takes weeks of brain training. At the end of the day I love Vim because I can make it whatever I want.

Perhaps contact the author of submitted link? I'm fully open to setting something up; 10+ years of vim usage behind me, just inexperienced in writing up this kind of stuff. Might still give it a shot though :P

Vim has been my main editor for years now, and I still can´t get used to think with with motions that involve more than 1/2 lines/words/chars.

I think it´s just an unnecessary middle step for the brain: if I want to get to the word "dog" I don´t want to think how many lines/words/chars away it is.

Instead: focus on search to move about. It´s much more immediate and practical in my opinion. Using '/' I can usually get where I want to be in 2/4 keystrokes.

Combine it with visual mode (or small motions) and then you will really experience the power of vim AND its simplicity.

I think for a beginner (and I still consider myself one, even after a couple of years of intensive use) it´s a much easier paradigm to start with.

This is one of my favorite Vim tricks/guides posts: http://mislav.uniqpath.com/2011/12/vim-revisited/

I might as well chime in too. I thought this was a fun way to get the motor-memory down for movement: http://vim-adventures.com/

And although I agree with the post you made, that everyone should know how the .vimrc file works, I use Vundle to help make my vim experience less painful: https://github.com/gmarik/Vundle.vim

My biggest complaint about vim is probably a common one: the key commands don't seem to have much rhyme or reason. Perhaps in Bill Joy's mind they did but even now after years of use I find myself always having my vim cheat sheet nearby.

What do you mean with key commands? `i` for insert and `c` for copy makes quite sense to me.

That FAQ is broken, the first thing on there should be "How do I quit vim?".

I know you probably meant that as a diss on vim, but for a long time that was the only vim command I knew. I felt more comfortable exploring files in editors and vim was the only editor available on the servers. The first two dozen times, I had to google the :q!

Partially a diss, partially as if it's the default editor it'll open with no clear indication of how to actually quit it in certain circumstances. I had to do the same thing repeatedly when I first encountered it.

Actually, that may not be a frequently asked question, given that vim tells you how to quit on the starting page, as well as when you press control-C.

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