Some days I take Vim’s power for granted. Today isn’t one of those days. I just got done migrating all of my content from shoddily-marked-up “static” PHP and HTML files into my CMS, and the cleanup has begun. The problem is that I’ve been writing articles and posts in various editors and formats (with varying code quality) for…
The Differences Between Vi, Vim, and Emacs
Few geek conflicts have the incandescence of the “best editor” debate. Say the words Vim or Emacs in a deeply crowd and you’ll likely hear the sound of Katana safety clasps. But what’s the debate at this point? What are the merits of each? The advantages. The downsides.Let’s take a quick look at the core advantages and disadvantages…
Using jk vs. jj for ESC Remapping in Vim by Steve Losh
Some people prefer using jj instead of jk, but I prefer jk for two reasons: jk is typed with two separate keys, so you can “roll” your fingers instead of using the same one twice, and pressing jk in normal mode out of habit will move down and then up, leaving you exactly where you started, whereas hitting…
9 Enhancements to Shell and Vim Productivity
If you enjoy the command line then you don’t need to be sold on efficiency or purity of action. But even those who grok CLI are unaware of a number of ways to be more elegant accomplishing their tasks. Here are a few of my favorites. Remap Your CAPSLOCK Key Use ctrl-r For History Autocomplete Switch to iTerm…
3 Ways to Use Vim Commands in Other Applications
I recently converted (from TextMate) to using vim for all of my text editing, and it turns out there are a number of places where knowing your vim strokes can help you. Vimium Vimium is a Chrome extension that allows you to use vim commands to control your browser. It’s stunning how fast browsing can be when using…
I Feel About Vim Like Many Feel About Surfing
You never really feel like you master it, but that’s not really the point. The point is to get intimate with it, to never stop learning, and to accept its vastness. Let it swallow you up, and be thankful for what you do know about it while you’re constantly learning more. In short, enjoy it rather than trying…
On the Vim Path
I just uninstalled TextMate. I also just revamped my git workflow, and am going full-on Vim everywhere. That’s MacVim, Janus, using git within Vim, posting to WordPress from Vim, using Vimium in Chrome… Everything. I’m going to consume a massive number of tutorials, screencasts, lessons-learned blog posts, a few core books, and use those to update my /study/vim/…
Your Problem with Vim is That You Don’t Grok Vi
From StackOverflow: Your problem with Vim is that you don’t grok vi.You mention cutting with yy and complain that you almost never want to cut whole lines. In fact programmers, editing source code, very often want to work on whole lines, ranges of lines and blocks of code. However, yy is only one of many way to yank…
7 Relatively Unknown But Very Powerful Vim Features
I’m a bit obsessed with mastering vim. I kind of feel like I’m killing kittens every time I do something inefficiently. I know plenty of commands, but you don’t truly know a command (like in the Biblical sense) until you find yourself using it without thinking. I am on a continuous mission to raise the number of commands…