Learn Vim Progressively
tl;dr: Want to learn vim (the best text editor known to human kind) the fastest way possible. I suggest you a way. Start by learning the minimal to survive, then integrate slowly all tricks.
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:
- Survive
- Feel comfortable
- Feel Better, Stronger, Faster
- 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.
1st Level – Survive
- Install vim
- Launch vim
- 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. TypeESC
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 linep
: Paste current lineRecommended:
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
.
2nd Level – Feel comfortable
You know the survivor commands. Now, it is time to learn just a bit more commands to use. I suggest:
-
Insertion mode variations:
a
→ insert after the cursoro
→ insert a new line after the current oneO
→ insert a new line before the current onecw
→ replace the word under the cursor
-
Basic moves
0
→ go to first column^
→ go to first character of the line$
→ go to the end of line/pattern
→ search forpattern
-
Copy/Paste
P
→ paste before, rememberp
is paste after current position.yy
→ copy current line, easier but equivalent toddP
-
Undo/Redo
u
→ undoC-r
→ redo
-
Load/Save/Quit/Change File (Buffer)
:e <path/to/file>
→ open:w
→ save:saveas <path/to/file>
→ save to<path/to/file>
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.
3rd 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:
.
→ (dot) will repeat the last command,- N<command> → will do the command N times.
Some examples, open a file and type:
2dd
→ will delete 2 lines3p
→ will paste the text 3 times100idesu [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.
- N
G
→ Go to line N gg
→ shortcut for1G
, go to the start of the fileG
→ Go to last line-
Word moves:
w
→ go to the start of the following word,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:
W
→ go to the start of the following “extended” word,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 liney
→ 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 linefa
→ go to next occurrence of the lettera
on the line.,
(resp.;
) will seek for the next (resp. previous) occurrence.t,
→ go just after the character,
.3fa
→ search the 3rd occurrence ofa
on this line.F
andT
→ likef
andt
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 lineC-V
→ Start block selectionC-d
→ move down (could also bejjj
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
orC-d
or/pattern
or%
etc…) $
go to the end of lineA
, 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 ofhjkl
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.