28 October 2020 - Vim: the text edition paradigm
Vim. You may have heard about it - it is, after all, ubiquitous. Most people scratch the surface, find it too unintuitive, and walk away. Some others stay, but don’t dig. I dug for you.
Practical vim: Edit Text at the Speed of Thought
— Drew Neil
Interactions through language
In vim’s paradigm, you command vim to edit text via a composable language.
Vim’s language is made from three elements : verbs, complements, and counts.
| Vim language | Vim command | Verb | Complement | Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| “Change a word.” | caw |
Change |
a word |
1 (default) |
| “Delete a paragraph.” | dap |
Delete |
a paragraph |
1 (default) |
| “Yank (copy) until the beginning of the 2nd next word.” | y2w |
Yank |
until the beginning of the next word |
2 |
A typical text edition workflow in vim
Vim’s language paradigm allows for a very special command:
| Vim language | Vim command |
|---|---|
| “Repeat last command” | . |
Hence a typical on-the-fly-macro-style workflow in vim that many view as a productivity boost:
| # | Steps |
|---|---|
| 1 | Move the cursor to a text region to edit |
| 2 | Command vim to edit text |
| 3 | Move the cursor somewhere else and Repeat last command |
| … | Repeat last step as many times as needed |
Some of the most commonly used vim language elements
Vim’s language itself is very vast, but just like git, knowing a few basic elements is enough to power through 90% of your needs in practice.
Here is a small compilation of vim language elements that might address 90% of your needs:
| Verbs | Complements | Cursor Motions |
|---|---|---|
c Change |
^ to the 1st character of the line |
^ move to the first character of the line |
d Delete |
$ to the end of the line |
$ move to the end of the line |
y Yank |
f[c] to the character [c] in the line |
f[c] move to the character [c] in the line |
> Increase indentation |
t[c] till before character [c] in the line |
gg move to the first line of the file |
< Decrease indentation |
on all visually selected characters | G move to the last line of the file |
r Replace |
:g/regex/cmd on every line matching /regex/ |
w move to the beginning of next word |
J Join line with the next |
:v/regex/cmd on every line NOT matching /regex/ |
} move to the end of the current paragraph |
A Append to line |
aw on a word |
:cn move to a position described by the output of a program (eg compilation error) |
I Prepend to line |
a{ on a block defined by brackets |
gd move to local declaration (of a function, for instance) |
A quick glimpse into the abyss
Because you can also build your own language elements fairly easily, i.e. add your own words, the language itself is infinite.
For the sake of curiosity, here is a bigger sample of vim language elements you could come across:
| Verbs | Complements | Cursor Motions |
|---|---|---|
c Change |
^ to the 1st character of the line |
^ move to the first character of the line |
d Delete |
$ to the end of the line |
$ move to the end of the line |
y Yank |
f[c] to the character [c] in the line |
f[c] move to the character [c] in the line |
~ Swap case |
t[c] till before character [c] in the line |
t[c] till before character [c] in the line |
gu Make lowercase |
gg to the first character of the file |
gg move to the first line of the file |
gU Make uppercase |
G to the last line of the file |
G move to the last line of the file |
! Filter through an external program |
aw on a word |
w move to the beginning of next word |
gq Text formatting |
ap on a block delimited by new lines (= paragraph) |
b move to the beginning of current/last word |
gw Text formatting with no cursor movement |
a{ on a block delimited by brackets |
} move to the end of the current paragraph |
g? rOT13 encoding |
at on a block delimited by markup tags |
{ move to the beginning of the current/previous paragraph |
> Increase indentation |
aa on a function argument |
n move to the beginning of a searched regex |
< Decrease indentation |
on all visually selected characters | n move to the end of a searched regex |
zf Define a fold |
on all visually selected lines | gf move to the file which path is under the cursor |
ga Vertically align |
:g/regex/cmd on every line matching /regex/ |
hjkl move n’th characters to the left, right, top or down of current position |
r Replace |
:v/regex/cmd on every line NOT matching /regex/ |
<C-F> move n’th “pages” down of current position |
J Join line with the next |
:%[cmd] on every line of the file |
"[m] move to a position you have assigned to a marker in the past |
S Split line by a given character |
) till next sentence |
<C-O> move to a position you have jumped from in the past |
@ Repeat a macro |
al on a line |
g; move to a position you have edited in the past |
A Append to line |
af on a function |
:cn move to a position described by the output of a program (eg compilation error) |
I Prepend to line |
ai on a block defined by its indentation level |
gd move to the definition of a function |
A rewarding learning experience
Like any language, you start with a few, massively used words. Then you learn bit by bit with each situation you come across, one word at a time.
Because of the composability of the language, each word you learn is going to have a tremendous amount of applications, which makes vim a fun and rewarding learning experience.
I’m ending this post with a video showing how vim can help you power through certain concrete tasks: