7 ms·

Best of Vim Tips

117 points by res0nat0r 17y ago

akkartik 17y ago
Man, that's intimidating. I found 2 new tricks on the top screen and I still don't want to scroll through the rest.
- mattwdelong 17y ago
  My exact thoughts. I think I am going to print it out and study it for a while. I am sure there are tons of productivity things I can learn..and things I should probably already know.
  - 10ren 17y ago
    For intimidation, try browsing all the help pages of vim! :-) I've concluded that vim has every feature I can imagine - and then some. But I can't appreciate it until I've imagined it. The problem is that it is impossible to find that feature in the help, since I don't know its name. Google helps here, by searching for a description of it in my own words. Every tutorial I've ever seen on vim is mind-bogglingly boring. I've learnt the most by just hearing one tip at a time - and searching for one when I need it. Some people can absorb massive quantities of raw information, but I need to integrate new information into my other knowledge in order to be able to use it. Then there's practicing the habit of using it, and learning in what situations it is appropriate. For a tool, it's not knowledge per se, but the application of knowledge that is useful.
res0nat0r 17y ago
This is the best list of vim tips online I believe, and the author is always updating it. Last update: 22-DEC-09 One of my favorites that has saved me a ton of time more than once: " rename a string with an incrementing number :let i=10 | 'a,'bg/Abc/s/yy/\=i/ |let i=i+1 # convert yy to 10,11,12 etc
- jamesbritt 17y ago
  "This is the best list of vim tips online " When does a collection of items go from a list of tips to a lengthy compendium of details? Like others, I started looking over the page and got discouraged; there's too damn much.
- 10ren 17y ago
  For my understanding (ignoring the loop): between mark a and mark b: 'a,'b goto lines containing Abc: g/Abc recognizable substitute: s/yy/\=i/ = prefixes a variable (escaped with \) A problem is that it will only replace the first `yy` on the line (if you add g, to make it s/yy/\=i/g, it replaces all of them, but with the same value of i. How to make it increment multiple yy's on the one line?
coliveira 17y ago
This is pure gold. Thanks.
ghotli 17y ago
This article suffers from a bad case of TL;DR. There's great information buried in there, but it's presentation is poor. Typography should be taught in primary school to stave this off.
jamesbritt 17y ago
So after griping that the page is a case of data overload, I though there should be another way to get this much information parceled out in more digestible portions. In order to help myself (and others so interested) to improve my German vocabulary I set up a Twitter account that shoots off random German - English word definitions: @TeachMeGerman. Every hour you can learn a new word (modulo the data set size, though the repetition is actually handy). I bet such a thing, if it does not already exist, would be good way to pick up new vim tips. Thoughts? Volunteers? :)
- s3graham 17y ago
  I tried registering @vimtips, but turns out it's already been done: http://twitter.com/vimtips http://twitter.com/vimtips Hasn't tweeted in while though.
  - mileszs 17y ago
    Oops, that's me. I'll get that app tweeting again. Sorry.
    - jamesbritt 17y ago
      Sweet. I don't knok if this is a practical approach for you, but for @TeachMeGerman I set up a large text file (one I had created for a "flash card" app) and a small Ruby script to grab a random entry and post it to Twitter, driven via cron. This way I didn't have to remember to do anything. :)
crazydiamond 17y ago
hey guys this page is fantastic and the author responds in a very friendly way. You don't have to read it in one shot. Its more like a cheat sheet, than an extensive manual. I love it as it is.
- markjuh 17y ago
  Yes, I'd like to second that- it's a great reference list that gave me exactly what I needed already quite a few times.
graywh 17y ago
I think it's better to just know how/why all these tricks and tips work instead of having a huge list that's hard to read. It's much easier to apply that way.
kwamenum86 17y ago
A lot of these (at least in the beginning) appear to be regexp tricks rather than vim ones
10ren 17y ago
Oh man, the very first one was something I'd been wishing for! I need it for appending to text I've searched for, especially if I need to do it a few times. e.g. for adding an argument to a few method calls. I usually go `n` (repeat the search), then `e` (go to the end). That's enough. One tip at a time maxes out my absorption rate.
defdac 17y ago
Ok, now I'm totally sure I will never in my life try Vim - I'm not Rainman.
Oranj 17y ago
What does this do? 'a,'bg/fred/s/dick/joe/igc : VERY USEFUL
- blackman 17y ago
  between (book)mark a and b find fred then search the line and replace any occurrence of dick with joe with a confirmation. there a couple of modifiers on there I don't know but I think that's pretty much it.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]

Best of Vim Tips

117 points by res0nat0r 17y ago

akkartik 17y ago

Man, that's intimidating. I found 2 new tricks on the top screen and I still don't want to scroll through the rest.

mattwdelong 17y ago
My exact thoughts. I think I am going to print it out and study it for a while. I am sure there are tons of productivity things I can learn..and things I should probably already know.
- 10ren 17y ago
  For intimidation, try browsing all the help pages of vim! :-) I've concluded that vim has every feature I can imagine - and then some. But I can't appreciate it until I've imagined it. The problem is that it is impossible to find that feature in the help, since I don't know its name. Google helps here, by searching for a description of it in my own words. Every tutorial I've ever seen on vim is mind-bogglingly boring. I've learnt the most by just hearing one tip at a time - and searching for one when I need it. Some people can absorb massive quantities of raw information, but I need to integrate new information into my other knowledge in order to be able to use it. Then there's practicing the habit of using it, and learning in what situations it is appropriate. For a tool, it's not knowledge per se, but the application of knowledge that is useful.

res0nat0r 17y ago

This is the best list of vim tips online I believe, and the author is always updating it. Last update: 22-DEC-09 One of my favorites that has saved me a ton of time more than once: " rename a string with an incrementing number :let i=10 | 'a,'bg/Abc/s/yy/\=i/ |let i=i+1 # convert yy to 10,11,12 etc

jamesbritt 17y ago
"This is the best list of vim tips online " When does a collection of items go from a list of tips to a lengthy compendium of details? Like others, I started looking over the page and got discouraged; there's too damn much.
10ren 17y ago
For my understanding (ignoring the loop): between mark a and mark b: 'a,'b goto lines containing Abc: g/Abc recognizable substitute: s/yy/\=i/ = prefixes a variable (escaped with \) A problem is that it will only replace the first `yy` on the line (if you add g, to make it s/yy/\=i/g, it replaces all of them, but with the same value of i. How to make it increment multiple yy's on the one line?

coliveira 17y ago

This is pure gold. Thanks.

ghotli 17y ago

This article suffers from a bad case of TL;DR. There's great information buried in there, but it's presentation is poor. Typography should be taught in primary school to stave this off.

jamesbritt 17y ago

So after griping that the page is a case of data overload, I though there should be another way to get this much information parceled out in more digestible portions. In order to help myself (and others so interested) to improve my German vocabulary I set up a Twitter account that shoots off random German - English word definitions: @TeachMeGerman. Every hour you can learn a new word (modulo the data set size, though the repetition is actually handy). I bet such a thing, if it does not already exist, would be good way to pick up new vim tips. Thoughts? Volunteers? :)

s3graham 17y ago
I tried registering @vimtips, but turns out it's already been done: http://twitter.com/vimtips http://twitter.com/vimtips Hasn't tweeted in while though.
- mileszs 17y ago
  Oops, that's me. I'll get that app tweeting again. Sorry.
  - jamesbritt 17y ago
    Sweet. I don't knok if this is a practical approach for you, but for @TeachMeGerman I set up a large text file (one I had created for a "flash card" app) and a small Ruby script to grab a random entry and post it to Twitter, driven via cron. This way I didn't have to remember to do anything. :)

crazydiamond 17y ago

hey guys this page is fantastic and the author responds in a very friendly way. You don't have to read it in one shot. Its more like a cheat sheet, than an extensive manual. I love it as it is.

markjuh 17y ago
Yes, I'd like to second that- it's a great reference list that gave me exactly what I needed already quite a few times.

graywh 17y ago

I think it's better to just know how/why all these tricks and tips work instead of having a huge list that's hard to read. It's much easier to apply that way.

kwamenum86 17y ago

A lot of these (at least in the beginning) appear to be regexp tricks rather than vim ones

10ren 17y ago

Oh man, the very first one was something I'd been wishing for! I need it for appending to text I've searched for, especially if I need to do it a few times. e.g. for adding an argument to a few method calls. I usually go `n` (repeat the search), then `e` (go to the end). That's enough. One tip at a time maxes out my absorption rate.

defdac 17y ago

Ok, now I'm totally sure I will never in my life try Vim - I'm not Rainman.

Oranj 17y ago

What does this do? 'a,'bg/fred/s/dick/joe/igc : VERY USEFUL

blackman 17y ago
between (book)mark a and b find fred then search the line and replace any occurrence of dick with joe with a confirmation. there a couple of modifiers on there I don't know but I think that's pretty much it.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]