A Quick Primer on Vim

Transcript

1. Vim Notes James Cox, smokeclouds Monday, March 19, 12
2. Starting with Vim Get it at http://code.google.com/p/macvim/ Clone someone’s vim dotfiles. Mine: https://github.com/imajes/vimfiles Sam’s: https://github.com/idoru/idoru-vim-config Install Macvim cli helpers. Monday, March 19, 12
3. Vim is modal Insert (for typing) Normal (editing, moving, changing text/structure) Visual (selecting text) Command (running commands. duh.) Monday, March 19, 12
4. Key Mode Operators Bare letters to change mode (e.g. i for insert) Backslash to execute searches Forward slash for leader (default, can be remapped) Colon for commands (e.g. :wq for save, quit) Monday, March 19, 12
5. Basic Navigation h,l,k,j (left, right, up line, down line) ^ - first character (or, ctrl-a on OS X) $ - last character (or, ctrl-e on OS X) cursor keys. (ignore the purists) G, <n>G (go to line, go to numbered line) Monday, March 19, 12
6. Opening Files vim <path/to/file> - open a file :tabe <path/to/file> - to open a file in a tab :split <path/to/file> - open a file and split with the current :vsplit <path/to/file> - open a file and vertical split with current Monday, March 19, 12
7. Writing (Saving) files :w (existing) :w <path/to/save> (new) :w! forces it Monday, March 19, 12
8. Quitting The Buffer :q - quit :q! - force quit. :) Usual behavior: :wq Monday, March 19, 12
9. Fun Stuff :ct <char> - Cut to character, also: :yt, :dt :%s/a/b/ - Buffer search and replace :noh - remove highlights which are annoying gt/gT - move between tabs Monday, March 19, 12
10. Fun stuff 2: my .vimrc.local https://github.com/imajes/vimfiles/blob/ master/.vimrc.local Monday, March 19, 12
11. Plugins: Gist Source - http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php? script_id=2423 (drop this in your plugins dir) Be careful of settings: let g:gist_clip_command = 'pbcopy' let g:gist_open_browser_after_post = 1 let g:gist_detect_filetype = 1 Monday, March 19, 12
12. Plugins: Endwise Tim Pope’s - https://github.com/tpope/vim-endwise ‘Wisely’ adds an ‘end’ where appropriate Monday, March 19, 12
13. Plugins: Fugitive Tim Pope - https://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive Git wrapper. Git activities in hackable buffers = awesome Fave tool: :Gblame Monday, March 19, 12
14. Plugins: Rails Oh, Tim Pope. https://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive Where might one begin? Monday, March 19, 12
15. Pairing with vim Vim is a serious text editor. In the way that Schubert has a serious movember ‘tache. Pairing is fine, but I think it makes sense to only have one driver at a time - it’s hard to ‘share’ typing. A common env is not impossible but it’s definitely ‘personal’ - fortunately it’s easy to switch ~/.vim Monday, March 19, 12
16. Pontifications Vim is easy enough to learn if you’re willing to spend two weeks looking at a cheat sheet or bugging someone - or pair with someone. Textmate hasn’t changed significantly in forever, we all know it’s failings. Old and creaky. Rubymine takes 6 weeks to boot. Emacs. sigh, Godwin’s law, you win. Monday, March 19, 12
17. More Resources: http://vim.runpaint.org/ - looks ok http://www.viemu.com/ a_vi_vim_graphical_cheat_sheet_tutorial.html http://vim.wikia.com/ http://www.vim.org/scripts/index.php Monday, March 19, 12