Tech

Effective Vim

Swaroop Chitlur

Nov 16, 2007 • 4 min read

Being a fan of Steve Yegge, I was
randomly reading some of his older writings and eventually chanced
upon his post on “Effective
Emacs”. Being
a Vim guy, I wondered whether some of the tips he presents are useful
for the Vim world as well.

Note: This is not a Vim vs Emacs thing, it is simply a porting of
tips for Emacs to see whether the tips are useful for Vim users as
well.

So here goes:

10 Specific Ways to Improve Your Productivity With Emacs, ported to Vim:

Item 1: Swap Caps-Lock and Control

This is a desktop-specific customization. ~~However, I don’t think it is~~
~~required for Vim users, but it can be~~
~~useful.~~

Update: After using for a couple of days, I’m really starting to like this!

Item 2: Invoke M-x without the Alt key

Not relevant for Vim. Not a good start, first two tips are out…

Item 3: Prefer backward-kill-word over Backspace

This is a good tip. Normally, I would use bdw to achieve the same.
To map backspace to this command in normal mode, put this in
your vimrc: :map <bs> bdw.

To make it work in insert mode you can put :imap <bs> <esc>bdwa. I’m
sure there’s a better way to use just one command to do this, please
leave a comment if you know of a better way.

Update: You can also use ctrl-w in insert mode (see :help i_CTRL-W),
thanks to pimaniac.

Use :set incsearch.
Press n to search forward and N to search backward.

Item 5: Use Temp Buffers

Run :new to get a new buffer (or alternately ctrl-w n).
To switch between buffers, use ctrl-w ctrl-w (yes, twice).
Use :q as usual to close the buffer (or alternately, ctrl-w q).

Item 6: Master the buffer and window commands

To split window vertically, run :vsp
To split window horizontally, run :sp
To make all visible windows approximately equal height, run ctrl-w =
To switch to other window, run ctrl-w ctrl-w or use the
directional keys ctrl-w h/j/k/l
To delete other windows, use ctrl-w o or run :only
To list-buffers, run :ls (or even :files or :buffers)
Dialog Boxes: The Root of All Evil – agree, Vim doesn’t need dialog
boxes as well (at least in the non-gui mode)
Buffers to the Rescue – Same thing for Vim, I think.

Item 7: Lose the UI

Remove the menubar using :set guioptions-=m.
Remove the toolbar using :set guioptions-=T.
Similar options exist for the scrollbar, see :help guioptions
Region selection can be easier in Vim using the visual mode, just
press v, use the normal keys to move around, such as 10j to move
down by 10 lines, and then a command to work on that visual
selection, such as d to delete it.

Item 8: Learn the most important help functions

The help in Vim is vast, see :help usr_toc to see the chapters of
the awesome reference manual.

Item 9: Master Emacs’s regular expressions

I agree, Friedl’s book is the authority on this. However, there are
some good introductions to Vim regular
expressions available.

Item 10: Master the fine-grained text manipulation commands

Creating macros are easy in Vim. Press qa to start recording
a macro called ‘a’, do all the commands you want to run, pres q to
stop recording. Then, run @a to repeat the recorded commands i.e.
a macro.
Swapping two adjacent words, yeah, this can be better. I use xp to
swap characters and dwwP to swap words, but it doesn’t do fancy
stuff like the transpose-* functions. This can be an interesting
plugin to write.

Tune in next time…

Filling paragraphs can be done by setting :set textwidth=80 and
running gqap command to format ‘a’ ‘p’aragraph, or like me you
can map the ‘Q’ key to run it : :nmap Q gwap. To make this work
inside comments, make sure you :set formatoptions+=c.
gnuserv : I use It’s All
Text! Firefox
extension.
Dired : There are plugins available with
similar
functionality
Whitespace manipulation – plenty of ways such as :set expandtab,
:retab!, :help fo-table, etc.
nxml-mode : I haven’t used nxml-mode but I’m still looking for
something like Emacs’ SGML-mode that works for Vim. I miss you,
SGML-mode.
picture-mode : Dr. Chip to the rescue with
DrawIt.vim
minibuffer management : Not sure what this is.
effortless navigation : I think Vim has enough keys for this by
default. See :help navigation.
region management : We can always choose the color scheme of choice
for the highlighted region, or change it ourselves, see `:help

:highlight`.

rectangle commands : Use ctrl-v
emacs shells : We have :sh but don’t know if Emacs does
something more
align-regexp : Not sure what this is.
frame initialization : I set Vim to always opens in full screen,
see :help win16-maximized. Not sure how to do it in Linux yet,
but in Gnome, I just press Alt-F10.
using the goal column : No idea…
setting the fill column : Nada…
OS settings and font : I like to customize Vim’s font and keep
trying different
fonts, currently
I’m using :set guifont=Consolas:h14:cANSI
browsing and editing archives : I think Vim does this by default,
see :help netrw.
advanced keybinding : see :help :map and :help keycodes
mastering the kill ring : I guess you can simulate this with
:echo @a, etc.
mastering Info : Not sure if this would be useful in Vim.
using M-x customize : Not sure what this does.
utility apps : It’s all in the plugins.

Summary: Porting good ideas is a good idea :)

I wonder why a search for Steve Yegge on Wikipedia points to
Batman…

Update in November end, 2008: I have released a new book on Vim, read the whole thing right here..