Productive Text Editing with Vim

Bryan Bibatpangkaraniwang developer

Really old text-editors

vi – 35 years old

vim – 20 years old

Present in most *nix machines

Not just a weird editor with an “Insert mode”

i – insert mode

<esc> – normal mode

:e – open file

:w – write

:q – quit

vi – a language for editing

Tip 1:

Use insert mode only as needed.

Tip 8:

Plugins are fun.

Tip 3:

Normal mode is faster for navigation.

Tip 2:

“i” is not the only way to go to insert mode.

i – insert mode at currenta – (append) insert at next

I – insert at beginningA – append at end of line

o – new line at nextO – new line before

Tip 3:

Normal mode is faster for navigation.

Tip 3.1:

Feel free to use the arrow keys over h-j-k-l (though you

shouldn't use them much).

0 – beginning of line$ – end of line

w – next word

e – end of next wordb – prev word

f[char] – find char on same linet[char] – 'til char

* – next same word# – prev same word

/[pattern] – search for pattern?[pattern] – search backward

n – nextN – previous

Tip 4:

Learn the many text manipulation commands.

. – repeat last actionu – undo

<ctrl>r – redo

y – yank (copy)

Tip 4.1:

Using certain commands twice will apply the command to the

current line.

d – deletec – change (go to insert)

Tip 5:

You must learn combining commands with motion

commands.

ct[space] - replace everything until space

Tip 6:

Visual mode allows you to select text.

v – enter visual mode

V – enter visual line mode

Tip 7:

Split screen and tabs can make programming more convenient.

:split – horizontal split:vsplit – vertical split

ctrl-w[direction] – switch

:tabnew – new tabgt – change tab

Tip 8:

Plugins are fun.

Tip 9:

Learn a new thing every day/week.

Thank you for listening!

github.com/bryanbibat@bry_bibat

pd.bryanbibat.net

Thank you for listening!

github.com/bryanbibat@bry_bibat

pd.bryanbibat.net