Learn Vim Progressively

Vim the Six Billion Dollar editor

Better, Stronger, Faster.

Learn vim and it will be your last text editor. There isn’t any better text editor I know. Hard to learn, but incredible to use.

I suggest you to learn it in 4 steps:

1. Survive
2. Feel comfortable
3. Feel Better, Stronger, Faster
4. Use vim superpowers

By the end of this journey, you’ll become a vim superstar.

But before we start, just a warning. Learning vim will be painful at first. It will take time. It will be a lot like playing a music instrument. Don’t expect to be more efficient with vim than with another editor in less than 3 days. In fact it will certainly take 2 weeks instead of 3 days.

1^st Level – Survive

1. Install vim
2. Launch vim
3. DO NOTHING! Read.

In a standard editor, typing on the keyboard is enough to write something and see it on the screen. Not this time. Vim is in edition mode. Lets get in insertion mode. Type on the letter i.

You should feel a bit better. You can type letters like in a standard notepad. To get back in edition mode just tap the ESC key.

You know how to switch between insertion and edition mode. And now, the list of command you can use in edition mode to survive:

• i: Insertion mode. Type ESC to return to edition mode.
• x: Delete the char under the cursor
• :wq: Save and Quit (:w save, :q quit)
• dd: Delete (and copy) current line
• p: Paste current line

Recommended:

• hjkl (recommended but not mandatory): basic cursor move (←↓↑→). Hint: j look like a down arrow.
• :help <command>: Show help about , you can start using :help without anything else.

Only 5 commands. This is very few to start. Once these command start to become natural (may be after a complete day), you should go on level 2.

But before, just a little remark on edition mode. In standard editors, to copy you have to use the Ctrl key (Ctrl-c generally). In fact, when you press Ctrl, it is a bit like if all your key change meaning. With vim in edition mode, it is a bit like if your Ctrl key is always pushed down.

A last word about notation: instead of writing Ctrl-λ, I’ll write C-λ.

2^nd Level – Feel comfortable

You know the survivor commands. Now, it is time to learn just a bit more commands to use. I suggest:

1. Insertion mode variations:

   • a → insert after the cursor
   • o → insert a new line after the current one
   • O → insert a new line before the current one
   • cw → replace the word under the cursor

2. Basic moves

   • 0 → go to first column
   • ^ → go to first character of the line
   • $ → go to the end of line
   • /pattern → search for pattern

3. Copy/Paste

   • P → paste before, remember p is paste after current position.
   • yy → copy current line, easier but equivalent to ddP

4. Undo/Redo

• u → undo
• C-r → redo

1. Load/Save/Quit/Change File (Buffer)

• :e <path/to/file> → open
• :w → save
• :saveas <path/to/file> → save to <filename>
• ZZ or :wq → save and quit
• :q! → quit without saving, also :qa! to even if there are some modified hidden buffers.
• :bn (resp. :bp) → show next (resp. previous) file (buffer)

Take the time to integrate all of these command. Once done, you should be able to do every thing you are able to do on other editors. But until now, it is a bit awkward. But follow me to the next level and you’ll see why.

3^rd Level – Better. Stronger. Faster.

Congratulation! If you managed to go until here, we can start the interresting stuff. At level 3, we’ll only talk about command which are compatible with the old vi.

Better

Lets look at how vim could help you to repeat yourself:

1. . → (dot) will repeat the last command,
2. N<command> → will do the command N times.

Some examples, open a file and type:

• 2dd → will delete 2 lines
• 3p → will paste the text 3 times
• 100idesu [ESC] → will write “desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu desu “
• . → Just after the last command will write again the 100 “desu “.
• 3. → Will write 3 “desu” (and not 300, how clever).

Stronger

Knowing how to move efficiently with vim is very important. Don’t skip this section.

1. NG → Go to line N
2. gg → shortcut for 1G, go to the start of the file
3. G → Go to last line

4. Word moves:

   1. w → go to the start of the following word,
   2. e → go to the end of this word.

   By default, word are composed of letter and the underscore character. If you want to use word in the meaning of group of letter separated by spaces, just use uppercases:

   1. W → go to the start of the following “extended” word,
   2. E → go to the end of this “extended” word.

   

Now lets talk about very efficient moves:

• % : Go to corresponding (, {, [.
• * (resp. #) : go to next (resp. previous) occurrence of the word under the cursor

Believe me, these three last commands are gold.

Faster

Remember about the importance of vi moves? Here is the reason. Most commands can be used using the following general format:

<start position><command><end position>

For example : 0y$ means

• 0 → go to the beginning of this line
• y → yank from here
• $ → up to the end of this line

Of course, there is a shortcut for this: yy or Y. We also can do things like ye, yank from here to the end of the word. But also y2/foo yank up to the second occurrence of “foo”.

But what was true for y (yank), is also true for d (delete), v (visual select), gU (uppercase), gu (lowercase), etc…

4th Level – Vim Superpowers

With all preceding commands you should be comfortable to use vim. But now, here are the killer features. Some of these features were the reason I started to use vim.

Move on current line: 0 ^ $ f F t T , ;

• 0 → go to column 0
• ^ → go to first character on the line
• $ → go to the last character on the line
• fa → go to next occurrence of the letter a on the line. , (resp. ;) will seek for the next (resp. previous) occurrence.
• t, → go just after the character ,.
• 3fa → search the 3^rd occurrence of a on this line.
• F and T → like f and t but backward.

Some Useful Tips

• dt" → remove everything until the ".
• vi" → select everything inside two ".

Select rectangular blocs: C-V.

Rectangular blocks are very useful to comment many lines of code. Typically: 0C-VC-dI// [ESC]

• ^ → go to start of the line
• C-V → Start block selection
• C-d → move down (could also be jjj or %, etc…)
• I// [ESC] → write // to comment each line

Completion: C-n and C-p.

In insertion mode, just type the start of a word, then type C-p, magic…

Macros : qa do something q, @a, @@

qa record your actions in the register a. Then @a will replay the macro saved into the register a as if you typed it. @@ is a shortcut to replay the last executed macro.

Example

On a line containing only the number 1, type this:

• qaYpC-aq →

  • qa start recording.
  • Yp duplicate this line.
  • C-a increment the number.
  • q stop recording.
• @a → write 2 under the 1
• @@ → write 3 under the 2
• Now do 100@@ will create a list of increasing numbers until 103.

Visual selection: v,V,C-v

We saw an example with C-V. There is also v and V. Once the selection made, you can:

• J → join all lines together.
• < (resp. >) → indent to the left (resp. to the right).
• = → auto indent

Add something at the end of all visually selected lignes:

• S-V
• go to desired line (jjj or C-d or /pattern or % etc…)
• $ go to the end of line
• A, write texte, ESC.

Splits: :split and vsplit.

Here are the main commands, but you should look at :help split.

• :split → create a split (:vsplit create a vertical split)
• C-w<dir> : where dir is any of hjkl or ←↓↑→ to change split.
• C-w_ (resp. C-w|) : maximise size of split (resp. vertical split)
• C-w+ (resp. C-w-) : Grow (resp. shrink) split

Conclusion

That was 90% of commands I use every day. I suggest you to learn no more than one or two new command per day. After two to three weeks you’ll start to feel the power of vim in your hands.

Then, you will learn about !, folds, registers, the plugins and many other features. Learn vim like you’d learn piano and all should be fine.

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