A brief introduction to Vim

• Vim is a text editor, which can be used from a command-line interface
• Vim can be used completely without the mouse
• Vim is available on a lot of UNIX-like operating systems per default
• Vim keybindings and functionality can likely be emulated in your IDE with a plugin

Installation

• Install Vim with your system's package manager if you are on an UNIX-like OS
• Install Vim with gitforwindows if you use windows

Modes

• To switch from normal mode to insert mode, press the i key
• To switch from insert mode (or any other mode) to normal mode, press the ESC key

Open, save and quit

• Type :w followed by the ENTER key to write to the file opened
• Type :q followed by the ENTER key to close/quit the file opened (you will be notified if there are unsaved changes)
• Type :q! followed by the ENTER key to close/quit the file opened without saving
• Type :wq or :x followed by the ENTER key to both write and quit
• Alternatively you can also press ZZ to write and quit

Navigation

• To navigate in Vim, use the normal mode
• Don't use the arrow keys to navigate, because that way your fingers have to leave the home row of the keyboard

• h to move the cursor one character to the left (equivalent of ←)
• l to move the cursor one character to the right (equivalent of →)
• k to move the cursor one line up (equivalent of ↑)

• j to move the cursor one line down (equivalent of ↓)

• Press w (lowercase) to place the cursor at the beginning of the next word (Note that e.g. - counts as a separator)

• Press W (uppercase) to place the cursor at the beginning of the next WORD (Note that here a word counts as anything as long as it is not separated by a space character)

• Press b (lowercase) to place the cursor at the beginning of the previous word (Note that e.g. - counts as a separator)

• Press B (uppercase) to place the cursor at the beginning of the previous WORD (Note that here a word counts as anything as long as it is not separated by a space character)

• Press e (lowercase) to place the cursor at the end of the current word (Note that e.g. - counts as a separator)

• Press E (uppercase) to place the cursor at the end of the current WORD (Note that here a word counts as anything as long as it is not separated by a space character)

• Press 0 to place the cursor at the beginning of the line

• Press ^ to place the cursor at the first non-space-character of the line

• Press $ to place the cursor at the end of the line

• Press :10 followed by the ENTER key to jump to the 10th line of the file

• Press gg to place the cursor at the first line of the file

• Press G to place the cursor at the last line of the file (the number after the colon determines to which line you jump)

• Press H to place the cursor at the first line visible on the screen (H for High)

• Press M to place the cursor at the center line of the visible screen (M for Middle)

• Press L to place the cursor at the last line visible on the screen (L for Low)

Scrolling

• Press CTRL+E to scroll down by one line
• Press CTRL+Y to scroll up by one line
• Press CTRL+F to scroll one whole screen down
• Press CTRL+B to scroll one whole screen up
• Press CTRL+D to scroll a half screen down
• Press CTRL+U to scroll a half screen up

Searching

• Type / followed by a phrase followed by pressing the ENTER key to search for that phrase
• Special characters like * have to be escaped with a bashslash (\)
  • E.g. to search for /*, type in /\/\* followed by pressing the ENTER key


• Press n to jump to the next occurrence of the phrase


• Press N to jump to the previous occurrence of the phrase

Commands

• Commands can be executed in the runtime of Vim by pressing : followed by the command
• Commands can also be persisted by writing them into the ~/.vimrc file

Runtime-only commands

• Some commands can only be executed in runtime, because it makes no sense to write them in the config file
  • We already covered :w, :q, :q!, :wq and :x
  • edit [filename] and e [filename] opens filename relative to the directory, you opened Vim in
  • w [filename] you can save the currently opened file to a new or an already existing but different file by specifying a filename

More commands

• syntax on enables syntax highlighting
• set number enables line numbers
• set relativenumber enables relative line numbers to where the cursor is currently at (can be used together with set number)
• set ignorecase disables case sensitive searching
• set smartcase enables case sensitive searching if the phrase you are searching for has uppercase letters in it
• tabs can be configured with commands too
• hlsearch highlights the phrase your searched for
• nohlsearch removes the highlighting of the searched phrase

Indenting and unindenting

• The cursor does not have to be at the beginning of the line
• Press >> to indent the line, the cursor sits on
• Press << to unindent the line, the cursor sits on

Manipulation

• Manipulations are performed in normal mode
• Think about speaking a language or telling Vim in a sentence, what to do (with a verb, modifier and noun)

Verbs

• Determines what action will be performed
• Change (key c): Deletes the desired part of the file (specified by modifier and noun) and then switches to insert mode
• Delete (key d): Deletes the desired part of the file (specified by modifier and noun) and stays in normal mode
• Yank (key y): Yanks/Copies the desired part of the file (specified by modifier and noun) and stays in normal mode

Modifier

• Determines in what scope the action will be performed
• Inside (key i): Performs the action inside the given noun
• Around (key a): Performs the action around the given noun
• Till (key t): Performs the action until (not including) the given character
• /: Performs the action until (not including) the given phrase

Nouns

• Determines on what element the action will be performed on
• All navigation keys can be used as noun
• Word (key w): Performs the action on the word, the cursor currently sits on
• Tag (key t): Performs the action on the tag, the cursor currently sits on
• ', ", <: Performs the action on the previous (<) and the next (>) symbol to the cursor

Examples

• Change Inside Word (ciw): Deletes the word, the cursor currently sits on and then switches to insert mode (can also be used with a uppercase W - the behaviour is the same as in the navigation section)
• Delete Around ' (da'): Deletes everything between (including because around) the previous and the next occurrence of '
• Delete Till l (dtl): Deletes everything between (including) the cursor and the beginning of the next occurrence of the character l
• Yank / foo (y/foo): Yanks everything between (including) the cursor and the next occurrence of the phrase foo
• Delete Inside Tag (dit): Deletes everything inside of the Tag, the cursor is currently inside of
• Delete $ (d$): Deletes everything between (including) the cursor and the end of the line the cursor sits on

More Manipulations

• Press dd to delete the whole line
• Press cc to change the whole line
• Press yy or Y to yank the whole line
• Press D to delete from the cursor until the end of the line
• Press C to change from the cursor until the end of the line
• Press x to delete the character under the cursor

Copy & Paste

• Press p, to Paste after the cursor
• Press P, to Paste before the cursor

Use numbers

• Use numbers as modifiers
• Press 5l to move the cursor 5 times to the right

The dot command

• By pressing . the previous action will be performed again

Search and replace

• :%s/foo/bar/g searches for all occurrences of foo and replaces them with bar in the file

Visual mode

• Visual modes let you visually select something and then perform an action on the selection
• Enter visual mode by pressing v
• Enter linewise visual mode by pressing V
• Enter visual block mode by pressing CTRL+v
• Exit any visual mode by pressing ESC (press twice to skip the delay)
• You can indent multiple lines at once by selecting them with a visual mode

Special manipulations

• J to join the line, the cursor is currently on with the following into one line (separated with a space character)
• r followed by any character to replace the character, the cursor is sitting on
• R to switch into replace / overwrite mode which enables you to replace multiple successive characters at and after your cursor (press ESC to get back to normal mode)

More possibilities to join insert mode

• a switch into insert mode and place the cursor after the current character (Append)
• A switch into insert mode and place the cursor at the end of the line
• o create an empty line after the one, the cursor currently sits on, switch into insert mode and place the cursor at the beginning of the new line
• O create an empty line before the one, the cursor currently sits on, switch into insert mode and place the cursor at the beginning of the new line
• I switch into insert mode and place the cursor at the first character of the line

Undo and redo

• Press u to undo the most recent action
• Press CTRL+r to redo the changes

Macros

• Record a macro by pressing q[register][actions_to_record]q e.g. qadwq
• Play that macro by pressing @[register] e.g. @a
• Play a macro multiple times by adding a number infront of it e.g. 3@a

Key mapping

• map creates a key map which then is available in most modes
• nmap creates a key map which then is available in normal mode
• imap creates a key map which then is available in insert mode
• xmap creates a key map which then is available in visual mode
• noremap creates a (non-recursive) key map which then is available in most modes
• nnoremap creates a (non-recursive) key map which then is available in normal mode
• inoremap creates a (non-recursive) key map which then is available in insert mode
• xnoremap creates a (non-recursive) key map which then is available in visual mode
• Non-printable characters can be used aswell but have a special notation:

• nmap <Space>w :w<CR> creates a key map to write the file on pressing SPACE+w

Mapleader

• Define a mapleader by adding let mapleader=" " to your config
• Use that mapleader like this: :nnoremap <leader>w :w<CR>

Color schemes

• Type in :colorscheme, then press CTRL+d to see available color schemes
• Type in : colorscheme darkblue, to activate the darkblue color scheme (or add colorscheme darkblue to your config)
• Download a color scheme (e.g. https://vimcolors.com/) and place the .vim file in ~/.vim/colors/
• This color scheme will now be available to use in Vim

Plugins

• To install vim-pathogen (plugin manager):

mkdir -p ~/.vim/autoload ~/.vim/bundle && \
curl -LSso ~/.vim/autoload/pathogen.vim https://tpo.pe/pathogen.vim

• Then add the line execute pathogen#infect() to your ~/.vimrc

ctrlp.vim

• To install ctrlp.vim

cd ~/.vim
git clone https://github.com/kien/ctrlp.vim.git bundle/ctrlp.vim

• Now run Vim and execute the command: :Helptags
• By pressing CTRL+p, ctrlp.vim will open up

NERDTree

• To install NERDTree

git clone https://github.com/scrooloose/nerdtree.git ~/.vim/bundle/nerdtree

• Now run Vim and execute the command: :Helptags
• Enter the command :NERDTreeToggle to toggle *NERDTree
• Navigate with Vim navigations in NERDTree, open a file by pressing ENTER
• map <C-n> :NERDTreeToggle<CR> will set a key mapping to open NERDTree on pressing CTRL+n

Use the systems clipboard

• Execute vim --version | grep clipboard
  • If you are on macOS, make sure the output includes +clipboard
  • If you are on linux, make sure the output includes +xterm_clipboard


• Install another Vim version with your systems package manager if it doesn't


• Add set clipboard=unnamed to your ~/.vimrc to make Vim use the systems clipboard

Comments in the config

" This is a comment

My Vim config

" pathogen initialization
execute pathogen#infect()

" syntax highlighting
syntax on

" use numbers
set number
set relativenumber

" searching
set ignorecase
set smartcase
set hlsearch

" use system clipboard
set clipboard=unnamed

" tabs
set tabstop=2
set shiftwidth=2
set softtabstop=2
set expandtab

" key maps
let mapleader=" "
map <C-n> :NERDTreeToggle<CR>
nnoremap <leader>w <esc>:w<CR>
nnoremap <leader>q <esc>:q<CR>
nnoremap <leader>Q <esc>:q!<CR>
nnoremap <leader>n <esc>:nohlsearch<CR>

" colorscheme
colorscheme atom