Vim re-binds that don't suck

jamesc40 — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 20:52:48 +0000

On my last post I spoke about some basic keybindings that allow you to navigate Vim. I would now like to visit a few more keybindings to incorporate into your workflow and some ideas on what to change them to.

One of the first things I would advice a new user to rebind is ESC. You'll be hitting this key a lot and it by default is difficult to reach especially from the home row

imap jj <Esc>

Another popular rebind for escape is tab which you can do in your keyboard settings if you're on mac.

Additionally when working with multiple windows in vim the default key-bind can be tough to remember for windows so I would recommend these:
nnoremap <C-h> <C-w>h nnoremap <C-j> <C-w>j nnoremap <C-k> <C-w>k nnoremap <C-l> <C-w>l

This removes the need to hit Control AND W to change when changing windows.

You should also consider changing the default behavior for tabs.
set softtabstop=2 set shiftwidth=2 set tabstop=2 set expandtab
By default vim sets these as 4 and it looks a little strange coming from another Text Editor.

Lastly by default the 'p' which is put does not save to the system clipboard and does not use the system clipboard. To change this add this:

set clipboard=unnamedplus

These are some of the key-binds that helped smooth my transition to Vim. When first starting out it can seem overwhelming but by taking it one step at a time and finding ways to improve your workflow without getting discouraged is extremely rewarding.

Why new programmers should be using Vim

jamesc40 — Tue, 10 May 2022 17:30:40 +0000

At the beginning of my coding journey like most others one of my first steps was to download VSCode onto my computer.

It wasn't until a few months into learning how to code that I learned of a program that was already on my computer that completely changes the way you interact with a text editor.

That text editor is Vim and after seeing some of the benefits it could give to power users. I decided to give it a shot.

After the initial cobwebs wore off I found that after just a few days there were some tasks I was already faster at doing compared to in VSCode which although new was a UI I had been interacting with almost my whole life. The ability to jump to any point on the page with just a few key strokes felt like I was was Neo in The Matrix.

There are seven basic modes in vim but when first starting out I'd advice for you to just focus on these three

command mode (moving with the keyboard)
insert mode (typing in the text editor)
visual mode (used to selected characters ex. copy, paste, etc.

... and here are some key-binds to get you going

switch between command mode and insert mode with i
switch between insert mode and command mode with Esc
navigate up in command mode with k
navigate down in command mode with j
navigate left in command mode with h
navigate right in command mode with l
save with :w followed by enter
to quit without saving :q! or ZQ
undo with u
redo with Ctrl+r
to save AND quit :wq

In conclusion if you've been thinking of giving vim a try or this is your first time hearing about it just learning the basics can be beneficial and who knows you might just find that you prefer it!

DEV Community: jamesc40

Vim re-binds that don't suck

Why new programmers should be using Vim