The hitchhiker's guide to vim

by George Brocklehurst (@georgebrock)

Presented at Stockholm vim, December 2012

Everyone says vim is really hard, that's a myth.
Think of it like learning a card game or a computer game. You have to learn the hands if you want to play poker, but it's still fun to play as a beginner. The more you play the more you learn.
It's OK to use the mouse and the arrow keys … at first.
If you're a Mac user, install MacVim for familiar keyboard shortcuts and interface conventions.

You've got to start somewhere

Go through vimtutor a few times.
Get yourself a cheat sheet. viemu.org's graphical cheat sheet is a good one, but perhaps a bit overwhelming at first.

Full graphical cheatsheet

Focus on learning a few things at a time.
Try to learn what all of the letter keys do (both lower and uppercase).
Using a cut-down cheatsheet with just the commands you're learning now can help.

Partial graphical cheatsheet

Changing modes

Vim is a modal editor.
Issue commands in normal mode and type text in insert mode.
Live in normal mode, and dive into insert mode to make small, self-contained changes.

Moving around

Commands that move the cursor are called motions.
Prefix motions with a number to repeat them.
Often easy to remember mnemonics, e.g. w moves by word.
It's also common to move by searching.

Operators

Operators take a motion as an argument.
d2w will delete 2 words.
This is where we start to see the real power of Vim: You can build up functional sentences from multiple commands, and the more you learn the more complex commands you can build.

Text objects

Used with operators, in place of a motion.
Aware of the structure of the text (to some degree).
For example, dib will delete inside brackets.

Repeat the last edit

The . command repeats the last edit.
Once you get used to this it's amazingly powerful.
Think of your edits as little functions you can apply again and again.

Any questions?

Image credits