Mastering the Vim Language 

The thing thats special about vim as a text editor is that people who use it hold entire meetups about it

He matched his shirt with the VIM logo :)

Even 8 years later, people are still finding great value in these videos. Cheers, Chris.

This talk was a huge break through for me: "Vim is a language where operators act on text objects." BOOOM thank you :D

I just woke up from a nap, left youtube on and now im learning a strange language.

4:35 the language (basics) 5:36 repeatable & undoable 6:48 verbs/operators in vim 8:21 nouns in vim - motions 9:05 nouns in vim - text objects 12:18 nouns in vim - parameterized text objects (find/search) 16:33 where to learn/read 18:35 tips for mastering the language 20:35 relative number 22:45 visual mode is a smell 24:18 custom operators (from plugins) 24:42 tpope/vim-surround 26:02 tpope/vim-commentary 26:48 vim-scripts/ReplaceWithRegister 27:41 christoomey/vim-titlecase 28:21 christoomey/sort-motion 28:57 christommey/system-copy 29:52 custom nouns (objects) 30:03 michaeljsmith/vim-indent-object 31:08 kana/vim-textobj-entire 30:30 kana/vim-textobj-line both requires kana/vim-textobj-user 32:15 ruby block 33:30 Finding more custom text objects

I also learned new youtube shortcuts trying to apply the commands here

At 23:53 -- "Relative number's got you covered, absolutely" -- that made me laugh a lot. 😀

Been using vim for well over 7 years now and still learned a lot from this. Like he said - never reach the ceiling.

5 years later, and this is still great stuff, it's all still accurate and current, and I still learned something I didn't know. That's Vim, isn't it?

I've been looking for a long time why I would have to learn vim and why people are so enthusiastic about it. This is the first video that explains exactly that instead of trying to convince me to use an archaic editor on my graphical OS. Very good video. Very clear. This makes learning vim a lot easier as well now that I understand this.

I actually pressed b to wind this video back... I vote youtube starts supporting Vi commands!

24:20 "Now we get into the fun stuff" he says, 20+ mins into an incredibly fun talk! Already know by this point that I'm switching to vim full time 💯

I love how passionate you are when explaining, thanks for the tutorial man

What a great dive into a Zen of VIm. And relative numbers is something that i was missing for so long not knowing it was there all the time

I actually lost count how many times I've watched this presentation! It's what got me into VIM, big time. So, thank you, Chris Toomey! You do some good work, too, haha! I have a little update on Tim Pope's Commentary plugin. It now uses a different syntax than when this video was made: g + c + l = comment out a line; g + c + j = comment one line down; gcgc = uncomment(Uncomments a whole block of text if it was commented out in one motion, a paragraph, for example) Many thanks for providing the presentation video, guys!

I reckon that this video is the best intro to vim I've found. It worked for me, and I've shared it numerous times, I believe it takes people from "interested" to "all in". So well done!!

Talking on this subject, you have all the passion and enthusiasm and sincerity of a great artist talking about art.

Not sure if you have found this out by now or not, but I seen you delete a character, then type its lowercase for an example. If you hover the character, and hit ~ it will invert the case. It's pretty useful in my opinion!

So clearly explained, very smooth presentation, talks about best practices, and core principles of vim

Such a great speaker -- very calming and straight to the point.

Awesome talk: thank you! I've been using Vim for a few years and still learnt a bunch of stuff from this

Vim is a great tool since .. ever. I woul add the 'z' core commands to the list of things I miss in every other editor I use. z puts the current line on the top of the screen. z- puts the current line as the last one of the screen. And z. scrolls the text so that the current line go the cneter of the screen. So useful for positioning text on the screen

Biggest takeaways were working with text objects and making commands repeatable. Great video. Thanks!

This is a great talk. The way you described what makes it worth learning is so spot on. It applies to use of emacs as well!

I've officially switched to (neo)vim this past week. My previous IDE of choice was IntelliJ IDEA so it was a huge jump and took me awhile to let go, but I finally did it and I'm so happy about it!

I think I’ve watched this four times now, and I learn something new each time.

just wow ! I've been using vim very casually here and there. I knew there was more under the hood but i wouldn't have thought that much. Time to practice to learn and incorporate those !

I have used vim for something around a year and a half and I love it, I knew with the diw and dip operations, but the cs" ' blew my head right off!

Even after 8 years, this is still a great video (like the resources, Chris mentioned in the video). I‘ve watched it for about 4 times over the last year and every time it gives me some additional extra(I am using vim as my main editor for 14 years now). This is because it is packed so densely with information, it is almost impossible to get everything the first time. For a non native speaker, slowing down the video to 0.75 helps a lot 😉 Thanks Chris!

Excellent overview with demonstrations. I have been using vim for about 2 years but learnt a lot of cool ideas. Thanks for sharing your experience

wow, this is a super cool and easy-to-follow learner friendly introduction to the basics of Vim. Really thank you! Clap, clap, clap!

Wow, I knew about "inner" only in combination with brackets etc., but didn't imagine it working with words and paragraphs. He is right indeed, there's no ceiling.

This is so good as a tutorial! I had given up because no matter how many people swore by vim, I could never remember a single command. I think this if finally giving me the intro I need to understand the logic of these commands and get somewhere without staring at a cheat sheet!

This talk really gets into the soul of vim. Thinking about repeatabilty made a lot of sense.

I watch it every months, and still have something to learn.

I've been using vim since 2012, and now, thanks to your presentation, I understand why.

Great talk! I learnt so much. At 31:53 we actually do have language for a line, its called `_`. `c_` is shorter than `cil` and doesn't require a plugin (works with dot repeat too).

I lean his indentation so much easy. Before I used to select the part and use > . But now in any part of the line just > and j or 3j (if need to indent 3 lines). Thank you!

I'm getting into managing Linux and open-source software so tutorials like this are invaluable.

Best beginner vim video I've seen on RU-vid

Great dude! Nice talk. Been using vim inside VSCode for a while now and didn't know about the dot operator. That is game changing

Best vim presentation I've com across yet!

Simple and effective. This video totally blew my mind.

Great video. Going back to neovim after a break (I mainly use it for keeping a journal now) in 2023 and this helped me remember some of the commands. Thanks!

Started with VIM today. This is very informative. Thank you!

Great talk man, I am vim user but I rediscovered power of vim by knowing vim better. Thanks buddy. NOTE: I was so into the language I had tried to use some of them by mistake while typing this language. ;-)

For me, the best Vim presentation so far. Thumbs up!

This was very useful, thanks Chris!

didn't know about the indent, entire custom text objects, was suprised to find out it works out of the box with vscodevim. thanks for this talk.

very good talk. Good advice on sticking to the basics and going crazy on plugins

This is a great video! Thank you for all the tips.

This is gold! Vi is almost 50 years old and still absolutely amazing. Object oriented editing! What!?!🎆

7 years after your video It is still crazy useful. Thanks !!!!!!

great talk! you made me realize I was using visual mode as a huge crutch!

This is how people learn complex aerobics routines. I am determined learn and use Vim. thanks. Great talk/tutorial.

Thanks for the help. I should have been able to grok most of these useful editing features myself, but never did.

Thanks, Chris. "It's a good day", as you put, to learn what you've shared on the vim language and its syntax.

Very great technique and talk! It will be most effective if viewers are already familair and work with vim in day to day, this talk will refresh, recall, and make the foundation of vim for us much better.

Thank you! The "dot" command is magic!

Thanks man! Really good summary

So powerful. Thanks for this talk!

I think any talk can never really do vim justice. You can’t know how powerful the commands can be unless you use them. That’s why I think anyone serious about programming should give vim a couple weeks of try. Vim is really different from any other text editor so you’re not going to be a pro on it in a day. In fact you’re probably not even gonna be able to move around probably for a couple hours at best but that’s fine. Just like you said, the effort really does pay off in the end

amazing! i could 24h of this content in a row

Title case is a move in a nice direction. Using VIM as a word processor for prose or LATEX is very nice and there are few plugins for this type of use.

Really useful. I'm a linguist not a programmer and I use vim every day. I really like the idea here of vim as a language, and realized that's how I learn(ed) it - I think "change two words" and type 2cw automatically. I see the point about using text objects rather than movements though for the sake of repeatability - that's my big take-home from this video. Thank you!

Great video, good to know about visual mode smell

You can find a second or nth instance of o with `2fo` or `fo`.

i'm getting little shots of dopamine and 'ah ha!' moments constantly while watching this. I'm going to commit to VIM, I love the idea of just thinking through stuff and not having to get distracted by bells and whistles, just pure efficiency...

The + register is the system clipboard, so you can paste from it into vim "+p or yank an inner paragraph into it with "+yip

Wow that that presentation is really thoughtful!

Really good talk, thanks for the insight!

Thanks, i've learned the inner keyword that should prove very useful!!!!

Still one of the best videos I ever saw on Vim

"Typing is not the bottleneck." I discovered this just recently. I've been focusing on speed, but in hindsight I didn't solve problems faster, but introduced bugs faster only to spend more time trying to solve them. Vim had me somehow realize this. After 20+ years of computers and now switching to Linux, these tools (vim, the terminal, cli tools, basically Linux in general) opens a new way to experience computers. Funny is I realized why do I need a dedicated IDE? Linux IS an IDE you configure entierly yourself.

thumbs up for that title case plugin!

For further reference and readings: 16:30

This was very useful, thank you!

I just commited my heart to learn Vim, thanks Chris

As a new Vim user I loved this video, thank you!

Excellent talk. Thank you!

I use vim on vscode using an extension, it’s got the power of search and editing from vim as well as all the capabilities of vscode. Haven’t looked back since

Brilliant presentation. I love vim.

Me : The last thing I need in my life is one more tool to learn, I should focus on solving problems, Sigh and clicks anyway. Chris : 2000 commands memorizing 30 intuitive things Me : Aight keep talking

This dude sold me on Vim. Gonna learn to use it!!!

I love your intro music. ❤

Great great talk. I have one doubt (silly, surely), when Chris talks about Indent, Entire, Line, and Ruby Block plugins, does he say the keystrokes are: cm a i (for Indent), cm a e and dae (for Entire), c a l (when talking about Line) and c m a r (when Ruby Block)? my doubt is, what does that "a" do in those commands? What is the difference between "i" and "a" when deleting a sentence "d i s" vs "d a s"?,. Ok I figured it out, "i" is only the inner content, and "a" affects the content and the container, cool.

I came back to this video after 10 months to say that after I've watched this video I started using Vim as a plugin for VS Code. It was a pain for the first month. But now I can't work without it. It makes my life as a developer so easier. I'm sure I'll be using it for the rest of my life. Love Vim.

Amazing!!! Thank you soo much!

Been a Frontend dev for 12 years, today is the day i start with VIM. the change-inner-tag feels like my birthday and christmas together.

Oh! man, you +1 the guy into the realm of Vi(m), so +1 to your video, and to your SUBSCRIBE. Your video is the reason, now that I've decided to take this editor along through my career. SEEMS GREAT. THANKS a lot. With all the wide variety of user-friendly text-editor tools available, this Vi(m) thing intimidated me so intensely that it almost scared me away. All thanks to you man, now I'm into the Vi(m) group.

Yeah that was an amazing talk. Thank you

Great. These are really Master explanations.

Awesome. Thank you!

I learn a lot, thanks!

Wonderful presentation

inner word ====== mind blown

Awesome talk!

A superb explainer !