Palantir Cotyledon Lightning Talk

intro-to-vim.md

What is Vim?

Vim is a text editor

Why use Vim?

• Efficiency
• It's everywhere (all of your PCloud or on premise servers)

Why don't more people use Vim?

• Steep learning curve

Vim Modes

• Normal Mode
  • Used to navigate a file
  • Switch to normal mode by pressing the Escape key
  • Navigate using h, j, k, l keys (left, down, up, right)
• Insert Mode
  • Used to insert or delete text from the current position
  • Switch to insert mode by pressing i, a, I, or A
• Command Line Mode
  • Used to execute commands
  • Switch to command line mode by pressing :
• Visual Mode
  • Used to highlight text
  • Switch to visual mode by pressing v, V, or <CTRL-v>

Opening and Closing files

• To open a file with vim $ vim file.txt
• To save (write) the file, return to Normal Mode and type :w
• To exit (quit) Vim, return to Normal Mode and type :q
• To exit (quit) Vim without saving the file type :q!

Navigation Shortcuts

• gg move to top of file
• G move to bottom of file
• <CTRL-u> move up half a page
• <CTRL-d> move down half a page
• You can prefix a movement command with a number to repeat the movement that many times. Ex. 10j moves down 10 lines

Editing Shortcuts

• dd deletes current line
• yy copies line to register
• >> to indent line
• << to de-indent line
• . repeats the last change in Normal mode

Vim Commands

• ci)
• dt#

Continue Learning

• $ vimvtutor
• To get help on something, return to Normal mode and type :help <KEY>

Advanced

• dotfiles & plugins
  • tpope/vim-sensible
  • thoughtbot/dotfiles
• Vimium
• Vim + tmux

Resources

• Learning Vim in a Week
• Mastering the Vim Language
• Cheat Sheet
• Practical Vim
• What is vim and why use vim?