vim.md

Editors (Vim)

Modal Editing

• Vim is a modal editor - it has different modes
  • Normal: moving around a file, editing
  • Insert: inserting
  • Replace: replacing
  • Visual: selecting blocks of text
  • Command-line: running a command like save, quit, etc.

Basics

• Run vimtutor in terminal to learn/practice! (80x24 terminal recommended)
• vim FILE opens up the file
• Vim maintains a set of open buffers (aka files), and on top of that you can have tabs and windows
• Switching modes
  • Pressing esc returns to normal mode (consider rebinding caps lock to esc)
  • From normal, i = insert mode, R = replace, v = visual, V = visual line, ^V = visual block, : = command-line
• Command-line mode:
  • :q = quit (close window), :qa to quit all open windows/tabs
  • :w = save (“write”)
  • :wq = save and quit
  • :e FILE = open file to edit
  • :help TOPIC = get documentation on command (if you want help on a command-line command, type with colon, i.e. :q)

Interface

• Movement, aka “nouns”
  • hjkl = “arrow keys”
  • w = next “word”, b = “beginning” of word, e = “end” of word
  • 0 = beginning of line, ^ = first non-blank char, $ = end of line
  • H = “highest” line on screen, M = “middle” line, L = “lowest” line
  • ctrl-u, ctrl-d = scroll “up”/“down”
  • gg = beginning of file, G = end of file
  • f/F + CHAR = (”find”) jump forward/backward to next CHAR
  • t/T + CHAR = (”to”) jump forward/backward right before next CHAR
• Editing, aka “verbs”, which act on nouns
  • o/O = insert line above/below cursor + enter insert mode
  • d + NOUN = delete
    • e.g. dw = delete word, d$ = delete from cursor to end of line, etc.
  • c + NOUN = delete + enter insert mode
  • x = delete character (same as dl)
  • r + CHAR = replace cursor character with CHAR
  • u = undo, ctrl-r = redo
  • y = copy (”yank”), i.e. yw to copy word, p = paste
• Visual
  • v = select/highlight, navigate around to expand
  • V = highlights whole line
  • ctrl-v = highlights “ blocks”

Tools

• Customization
  • Change Vim’s behavior/configuration via ~/.vimrc,
    • Example config file provided by course instructors
  • Extensions also available
    • ctrlp.vim: fuzzy file finder
    • ack.vim: code search
    • nerdtree: file explorer
    • vim-easymotion: magic motions
• A good rule: whenever you think “there must be a better way of doing this”, there probably is, and you can find it online