Thanks for the amazing video here are some of my notes! 1:00 vim has a mythology of being impossibly hard. 2:30 Stay out of insert mode. 3:30 Disable arrows, to work on getting used to hjkl movement. 4:20 As you get more advanced let go of hjkl 5:00 learn advance shortcuts w instead of l (moving through words) b (back) e (ends of words) ge (back end of words) f (find) 5:50 advanced functions to delete chunks of phrases "t" "ct" 7:12 delete find df (delete til it find a specific symbol you are looking for) 8:40 relative numbers (example -16,-1co.) this copy pastes a chunk above the line where you are (or below) 9:20 H M L (migh medium low)
After playing around for a few days with 'vimtutor' and 'vim adventures', Im starting to think i've wasted the last 20 years with 'joe editor'. Replacing my IDE with vim/tmux is now my new years resolution.
@@jandrews377 Tips for the IDE idea, new versions of Vim and NeoVim support a terminal buffer, there's the asyncrun plugin: commandsgithub.com/skywind3000/asyncrun.vim for running commands in the quickfix window allowing you to quickly compile code without living your comfy vim. and the best plugin for syntax checking I have found so far is vim-ale. For code completion there are way to many options so pick your own poison. Hope it helps you
Yea it kind of is bs. I only actually use vim on the server but I have vim extensions for all my editors/IDEs. I'll say that using the extensions isn't the same (although the Intellij one is incredible), but they're enough to make editors like Atom much more productive. But I also code a lot of Java and I'm too lazy to set vim up for that. The interesting thing here I think is that you could actually make that argument about emacs, although I think it has more of a learning curve
I just started using vim, added vimium to my browser too. This video has some really practical advice on the issues beginners like me face, thank you for putting this out.
if you add "set path+=**" to your vimrc, vim's own :find command becomes a pretty decent substitute for a fuzzy finder, provided your working directory is always set to a project root
If you have folders like node_modules and/or composer's vendor, this absolutely murders performance. Just use a plugin that does the same but uses gitignore to build paths
My favorite motion is `}` that moves me to the end of a paragraph. I realised that I tend to try to program blocks by paragraphs just to move arround by `feature`.
The example given for relative line numbers is an anti-pattern. Rather than "d7j" you should have used "d}."/ "dap" or "2d}"/"2dap". Ironically you had just finished explaining why it's better to operate at a semantic level, or at a highest level of granularity available, then you did an operation using line numbers (non-semantic, not repeatable) which could have been done semantically (operating on paragraphs).
+ReductioAdAbsurdum In this context I'd disagree since he was using the command to demonstrate relative numbers. The context makes the commands you suggest nonsensical. But I agree that using the most superordinate word objects possible is good practice.
one more cool thing about the motion actions (eg 'dt{') is that this is an atomic operation that has a single undo step. pressing and holding 'x' for 15+ seconds will generate a bunch of undo operations for every single character. `dt{` is just a single undo. repeating this later has the same effect, so it's much easier to navigate my own changes (especially if i need to undo anything) - navigating, say, 3 undo steps is much more convenient than navigating 300...
I'm glad you called out the needless gatekeeping around vim. I don't need my ego stroked, I need vim seen as a rational option so no one minds me using it and being happy. I'm sick of being told to move to an IDE!
Easy motion: the best vim plugin ever made. It gets you from any character in the screen to any other character with 3 to 5 key presses. Once you get used to it navigating in a Vim without easy motion is a pain xD
I learned the bare minimum of Vi simply because it ships with everything and I know it will always be available. I thought I was decent just being able to get around, but this stuff is on an entirely different level. These guys are like Vim gurus.
If you write "set number" and then "set relative number" in your .vimrc file, then the 0 number will be the line number. Much more practical in my opinion, otherwise you would have trouble knowing how many lines are in a file.
Vim actually supports fuzzyfinder by itself. You don't need a plugin for it. Changes to .vimrc set path=+** set wildmenu Usage :find *.tex Congrats you achieved fuzzy search without a plugin.
LOL, I launched vimtutor after you mentioned it and started doing the tutorial while listening to this in the background. It started with the j/k keys to navigate...I said "nah, I'll just use the arrow keys", and of course that was at minute 3:31 when you scolded me for doing so - brilliantly timed! 🤣
I got the stupid idea in my head to learn vim, and I got super frustrated. That lead me to this video, and now that I'm practicing and setting custom shortcuts with the leader commands I'm finally starting to catch on and that's super cool. Frustration is a good teacher, although an annoying one. Might look into vim hard mode once I get a bit more used to hjkl navigation (I remapped my arrow keys to tab navigation, and that's a good punishment whenever my reflexes bring me back there). Great vid!
Add both "set number" and "set relativenumber" in your .vimrc file to always see which line you're currently on and have the relative numbers to jump to.
I do this and it's great. You can make jumps to precise locations on screen while still seeing the line number. I feel like relative line number is more useful than the actual line number but it's trivial to just turn on both when you need it.
One important thing I can remember about vimtutor is that you really should make a list of those commands to remind yourself of all those possibilities so that you don’t have to search them all the time.
No way as fast editing in just two weeks as a regular editor like Intelij.. takes months to build the muscle memory to gain the real speed advantages... plus to configure and plug in the holes that vim falls short on.. having said that its really satisfying and well worth the effort... I'm loving it, it's my primary editor now!
You should try out the vim extension for Intellij. It takes a little configuration because you'll have to turn off the default shortcuts that conflict (Ctrl+c, Ctrl+v, etc) but it's pretty easy to do and then you get the greatness that is Intellij combined with the agility of vim commands
@@LusidDreaming Yeah it is good. I've used vim plugins for Visual Studio Code and intellij..When you're in a locked down network, and only have access to certain tools this is a good way to go. I like plain old Vim as you can configure it to be your own IDE.. Intellij is very good but it does have a tendency to slow down in my experience and hog memory.. Vim when is configured well it can do pretty much everything that intellij can do.. Although I haven't managed to replicate local history yet...
8:05 wouldn't you rather use d2} instead of bothering trying to look at the line and figure out how many lines you need to delete? You know you want to clear two "paragraphs" worth of info and d2} comes intuitively from that thought, whereas 7dd requires stopping and then looking at your relative line numbers.
yeah arrow keys are great to disable , if you are lame enough to stick with qwerty , but you need to remap them in a clever way as to not kill other nice motion commands if you are on dvorak or colemak.. just sayng. I am currently using the HHKB2 keyboard and I regret not having remapped hjkl when I started using colemak because the arrow keys are only available while holdin the function key.
Do you feel we should just disable "Key repeat" all the time, or turn it back on in the future? I know for Vim it makes sense, and even on other programs where one wants to delete words we can just use "Ctrl+backspace". But I don't know if it's a good idea for other programs, specially if one uses Adobe CC. What do you think?
BlastOffLab I not only turn it back on, I crank it to ridiculous levels (beyond the max allows by default OS utilities: google it for your OS), then use it when it's faster or less intrusive to my mental workflow than counting/scanning and crafting semantic commands.
found the :copy command while he was teaching and did a little more research and found that :t will do the same thing its an amazing command for copy whole methods or functions am glad I watched this again.
Well, not to pick a fight here ;) but if I type a w instead of a q, isn't it quicker and easier to hit the backspace key with my right pinky rather than leaving insert mode to hit x then i to get back. Surely hitting a single backspace without leaving the mode is best?
wow, have been using surround for a while but didn't realize it gives you the option to surround with and without spaces. feeling stupid for not having checked that earlier.
Someone needs to make a relative lines plugin for sublime text. I'm using vim keymappings and loving it, but not having relative lines makes me feel like I'm missing out (And before anyone mentions VintageLines, it doesn't work for me and seems to be kind of a hacky implementation)
This video and many other vim related videos of thoughtbot have been sitting in my watch later playlist over many years. Now that I am here....... I am just write to make this comment and hopefully watch the video some other day. Wish me luck. Edit: Finally watched it!!! Yay!!
@@zorbat5 Yes, I have. Finally. I got the recommendation to watch this from reddit. So, this time I watched it. I wouldn’t say I could get started with hard mode yet, I am still heavily relied on hjkl. But I sure will try to disable my arrow key, and start being in normal mode more.
You know what rustles my jimmies? I use latam...my home row is asdf jklñ and god knows I've been trying to find how the hell to configure jklñ to the movement keys but can't find SHIT about how to do that. I use vimium in my broswer, I set my command line to vi mode and after using vim for a while I just don't understand why the hell it's not supported EVERYWHERE because it's just so awsome...but I need to change the movement keys...
Ctrl-f used to be one screen forward, some genius changed it to search. Why do you do that when / already does search? It's like amateur Windows user's feature.
Stop using Relative Line Numbers! For that example, instead consider the following command: dap. ^^ deletes the current paragraph (and spaces), then repeats the action for the next block.
"it's not that hard, it's not that scary". It's different from normal stuff, which means it automatically and definitely is hard and scary for almost everyone.
gv will repeat the last visual selection. so select some stuff visually and then run find and replace on a large chunk of code. Just learned that one today. :s/oldCSSClass/newCSSClass/g
vim is nice but i recommend you download webstorm or another jetbrains ide that supports javascript if you're a beginner, because it will explain/fix many common errors for you. imo sublime and atom are garbage in comparison to either.
ajay poshak so multiple cursors look cool, but I’m not sure they’re super efficient. When I watch RU-vid demos with multiple cursors, what I usually want to do is search, change, next, repeat: 1. Search for the current word (e.g. function name) with asterisk (*), make sure “hlsearch” is active for visual feedback. If you want the cursor at the end of the match, hit /, up arrow, add /e to the end of your search expression. 2. Make a single edit; usually change inner word (c i w), insert, or append. 3. Use n (next) and Ctrl-o to move between matches 4. Repeat edit with dot (.) - do steps 3 and 4 until done. If you’re doing a large number of change inner word (c i w), that’s an anti-pattern, and you’d save time by using ex commands: :%s//new_function_name/g Those two strategies do what I’ve seen multiple cursors do, but in a vim way.
Video starts at 14:53 for people who already know vim. I've been using Vim for 3 months and actually learned nothing in this video. I have gone a little crazy with my 3 months of Vim though since I've already written a some plugins and a simple autocompletion engine.
+Epsio0 hahaha, that was a funny point. Anyway, what he meant was that typing "i" in order to get in insert mode should be highly avoid, normal mode gives you the power of navigation and deletion without accessing insert mode. Also, Normal mode will give you access to insert mode at the right time and at the right location if you use it well. And as he also mentioned, once you are in insert mode, do what you need to do, and then you get out of there.
But have you tried to get used to sublime though? I mean, the package-manager is pretty cool for a 'text-editor', so are the multi-cursors, or the ctrl+p file opener, the project settings, all the possible extensions, it has just like vim, the g:oto line command and much more.
You can have all of that in Vim. But Sublime has like 5% of features of Vim. Once you go Vim there isn't any point in going back, since every other text editor is slower. Give it a shot for a few weeks. I forced my self few years ago by uninstalling every other editor in my computer. In begining it was pain, but now, I hardly ever open Atom.
All it takes is enough patience to read vimtutor. I think I was happy with vim for 1-2 years without learnig any new stuff after having done that! The stuff you can do after vimtutor beats nano, joe, and all the other stuff in the terminal by a mile! (I never bothered learning emacs, so idk about that one :). "Elitist attitudes" are not a thing. It is up to yourself to decide what you want to learn and not. I am for example not ready / willing to learn kernel & drivers programming - nor will I ever be (probably - because I have no need for it). However, I wrote my first c program that interacts with X via xlib last December. It wasn't easy, but it was certainly not impossible! Now I'm trying to become as effective in go as i am with php/bash/awk/sed - because it makes sense for me at this time to do so.
It took me probably 3 x 15 minutes to get through and absorb the info and practices in vimtutor. I think you two are either very good at memorizing in general or have very good eye/brain - to - hand coordination. I am slow and tenacious in general (e.g. always finishing exams last), but I think 15 mins is a bit of a lie.
