Difference between revisions of "HowToUseVim"

This is just a start, hopefully this will get you on your way to being a vim power user

Why vim?

It works well in screen and is reasonably powerful programmer's editor.

Modal Editing

Vim is a modal editor, meaning that unless you are in insert mode characters you type will not show up in the input buffer. I cannot stress enough that unless you are actually typing something in, you should be in command mode. This is very non intuitive for beginners.

If you get stuck, jamming on the key should get you back to command mode eventually.

Commands that start with : need to be finished by hitting

Quitting Vim

•  :q - quit vim

File Operations

•  :w - saves the file
•  :wq - saves the file and quits vim
•  :e - edit filename
•  :e . - open a file browser

Command Mode

command mode is the default mode for vim.

• i - insert
  • lets you type into the buffer. hit when done to return to command mode
• u - undo
  • will undo any commands. The undo buffer goes back to when you started your editing session and is really good, so it is better to stay in the habit of having an editor open for a long time and use ctrl-z and the fg command to drop to a shell
• ctrl-r - redo
  • redoes something that has been undone
• ct - change till
  • replace the text from here to the character with what you type. Puts you in insert mode
• cw - Change Word

Insert Mode

This is the mode you are in when you use the insert or change commands.

ToDo

• Document copy / paste / selections
• Vertical Insert
• plugins / links / documentation