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Intro to Vim

Intro to Vim

Why I use Vim

  • Was using too many tools
    • Sublime Text 2 for editing
    • Putty for SSH
    • git bash for git
    • Cygwin for Rubt commands
  • Can mostly be done in ST2, but with time invested. Restart with Vim
    • "nerd cred"
    • More importantly, server administration
      • Vim (or vi) works everywhere, no matter how broken the machine is
      • (emacs does not)
    • After 20 years, people are still finding new ways to use it
    • Repetitive Strain injury - vim helps enforce better habbits
  • You have to decide what works for you

Everyone's first Vim session

  • Bash.org joke

But how can we avoid this

  • vimtutor - 30-45 minutes is enough to gain usability
  • VIM Adventures - game that finally pushed me into learning
  • Cheat Sheet - I still keep one printed off on a wall
  • Focus on a small set - I picked five that I wrote down and learned each week
    • and still do from time to time

You will still struggle

  • Some of the things I struggled with
    • Copy and paste - very different idea, more later (and more advanced)
    • Not using a mouse - if you don't plan on this, Vim is not for you
    • Getting to the end of the line example
      • I used shift+A instead of $ for months

Vim has modes

  • In the early days, all editors had modes. By programmers, for programers.
  • Mid-1970s, Larry Tesler came up with the concept of modeless editors.
  • But a lot of power in favor of this ease of use.

You can move around

  • Focus on home row. h, l to go left and right, j, k to go up and down
    • Arrow keys are bad. Require awkward hand movements.
  • Variants can get you around the screen faster.
    • Screen: H, M, L
    • Document: gg, G, :50

And do things

  • insert is a complete mode switch to let you type text, leave with
  • delete, change, yank act on things
  • All of them put affected text into a place that can be pasted from

On objects

  • Everything is an object in Vim.
  • Learning to utilize these is the key to effective vim use

That can be modified

  • inside - excludes the surrounding part of the object
  • around - includes the surrounding part of the object
  • till - from cursor to the specific character
  • find - the same as till except for including the specific character

And finally combined into a language

  • das - includes the spaces. dis would not include the space after

Example stuff TBD

Other Talks

  • Ben Orenstein - one of my favorite speakers. more intermediate than beginner
    • Note comment on saving keystrokes
  • Damian Conway - More advanced and neat plugins
  • Chris Hunt - Shows basics of using Vim in combination with Tmux
    • I do this

Resources

  • Slides along with sample configuration available on Github

Try Vim for yourself