Some Vim snippets from my workflow

Volker B. Duetsch — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 14:27:43 +0000

Intro

There exist a lot of introductions to Vim. So I avoid writing another one. I want to share some information that helps me in my workflow and a small part of customizing.

Everyone should be able to use the tools that are best suited to their individual way of working. For all kind of writing stuff, for me, it's Vim. Bram I miss you.

Add words to own/specific spell file

Define your own spell file in your .vimrc.

set spellfile=d:/apps/vim/spell.add

With zg the word under the cursor is added to spell.add file.

Auto commit a file to an existing repo, if you write it

autocmd BufWritePost d:/projects/my/wiki/* execute '!git add % && git commit -m "Automatic commit: % by Vim"'

Every time I write a file to d:/projects/my/wiki it will automatically be committed to the existing repo.

The % in "Automatic commit: % by Vim" will be replaced with the filename.

Dictionaries for technical terms

I write almost everything exclusively in Vim. I have often to deal with technical terms or project related terms, so I use several dictionaries.

set dict=d:/apps/vim/terms_p1.txt
set dict+=d:/apps/vim/own_tags.txt
set complete+=k

terms_p1.txt holds terms specific to my current project (p1).
own_tags.txt holds special terms/tags I often use.
set complete+=k is needed to complete the terms with ctrl-n

Dictionaries allow only words without spaces, one word per line.

Find out where a key mapping comes from

:verbose map gx

Show current mode by color of statusline

I use orange for normal mode and green for insert mode.

au BufEnter * hi statusline guifg=black guibg=orange
au InsertEnter * hi statusline guifg=black guibg=green
au InsertLeave * hi statusline guifg=black guibg=orange

My customized status line

I know there are several great plugins, but I try to depend on as little as possible plugins.

set laststatus=2                                    " always show statusline
set statusline=
set statusline+=%{StatuslineMode()}
set statusline+=\ %h%m%r%w                          " flags
set statusline+=\ %F                                " path and filename
set statusline+=\ \-\-\ %l:%L\ \-\-\ %p%%\ \        " line from lines, in %
set statusline+=\ \-\-\ Col\ %c                     " 2 spaces, column number
set statusline+=\ \-\-\ Bn\ %n                      " Buffer number
set statusline+=%=                                  " right align
set statusline+=\FT\:\%{strlen(&ft)?&ft:'none'},    " filetype
set statusline+=\ \ENC\:\%{strlen(&fenc)?&fenc:&enc}, " encoding
set statusline+=\ \FF\:\%{&fileformat},               " file format
set statusline+=\ \%{wordcount().words}\ words,         " number of words
set statusline+=\ \%L\ lines,         " number of lines
set statusline+=\ size\:\ \%{getfsize(expand(@%))}

function! StatuslineMode()
  let l:mode=mode()
  if l:mode==#"n"
    return "NORMAL"
  elseif l:mode==?"v"
    return "VISUAL"
  elseif l:mode==#"i"
    return "INSERT"
  elseif l:mode==#"R"
    return "REPLACE"
  elseif l:mode==?"s"
    return "SELECT"
  elseif l:mode==#"t"
    return "TERMINAL"
  elseif l:mode==#"c"
    return "COMMAND"
  elseif l:mode==#"!"
    return "SHELL"
  endif
endfunction

The function is not from me. I don't remember where I got it from. Thanks to the developer.

Vim and shell

Will pipe the output to vim:

- fd PATTERN | vim -
- rg PATTERN | vim -
- curl -s https://example.com | vim -

Convert a diff to HTML

:TOhtml most people probably know.
The command creates a new buffer with the buffer content of the buffer from which the command was called, converted to HTML.

vim -d file1.go file2.go +TOhtml +"w diff.html" +qa!

vim -d file1.go file2.go -- starts vim in diff mode for file1.go and file2.go 
+TOhtml                  -- convert to html
+"w diff.html"           -- write in file diff.html
+qa!                     -- close all buffers and exit

Let Vim write

No snippet-plugin or abbreviation is used! I can't remember when for which task I used this, maybe just because it is possible.

Of course also works with echo, cat, bat, etc.

vim +"normal iHello" +"w n.txt" +q

vim +"normal iHello" -- will start Vim and type Hello
+"w n.txt"           -- will write current buffer to file n.txt
+q                   -- will close Vim

Folding

I use folding by marker. Default marker is {{{ and }}}. If you don't like the default you can try something like this:

set foldmethod=marker
set fmr=▶▶▶,◀◀◀

Use a fixed set of emojis

ab :fr: 👉
ab :fl: 👈
ab :fh: 👍
ab :gk: 🟩
ab :rk: 🟥
ab :yk: 🟨

Just type :fr: followed by space and the emoji will show up

I'm not a big fan of emojis so for my personal documents I like to decide to get rid of one or another.
To search for them:

:vimgrep /[^\x00-\x7F]/g %

The result can be found in the quickfix list, use :copen to open it.

Indent and out dent

For writing my outlines I need this often.

In insert mode:
ctrl-t -- indent
ctrl-d -- out dent

In normal mode:
>> -- indent
<< -- out dent

For my Golang coding I mostly rely on go fmt.

For other languages gg=G and >i}.

Moving lines to marks

Define a mark m by typing mm in normal mode.

Now you can do something like

:.,+1m'm

.,+1 -- current line plus 1 following line
m    -- move
'm   -- to mark labled m

:m0           -- move current line to begin of buffer
:m$           -- move current line to end of buffer
:g/PATTERN/m$ -- move all lines matching PATTERN to the end of buffer

Other useful stuff

:g:PATTERN:d -- delete all lines containing PATTERN
:v:PATTERN:d -- delete all lines NOT containing PATTERN

:g:PATTERN:d is similar to :g/PATTERN/d 
but with : instead of / you often can save 
the need to escape special chars.

:g/pattern1/,/pattern2/d -– delete all lines between PATTERN1 and PATTERN2
:%normal A;              –- adds ; to the end of every line
:%normal I//             -– adds // to the beginning of every line

g+        -- "Time machine": go to newer text state.
g-        -- "Time machine": go to older text state.
gM        -- go to the middle of the line that is visible
gJ        -- Join the next **line** without space
dH        -- delete from cursor position to top of the screen / not buffer
dM        -- delete from cursor position to middle of the screen / not buffer
dL        -- delete from cursor position to bottom of the screen / not buffer
d/PATTERN -- delete from cursor position to position before PATTERN is matched
ctrl-6    -- switch between two buffers

Helpful resources

I think it's the best doc I've ever found to exist for a piece of software. You only need to now for what to search...: https://vimhelp.org/
Vim Commands: A Beginner Guide with Examples: https://thevaluable.dev/vim-commands-beginner/
A Vim Guide for Intermediate Users: https://thevaluable.dev/vim-intermediate/
A Vim Guide for Advanced Users: https://thevaluable.dev/vim-advanced/
A Vim Guide for Adept Users: https://thevaluable.dev/vim-adept/
A Vim Guide For Veteran Users: https://thevaluable.dev/vim-veteran/
A Vim Guide For Experts: https://thevaluable.dev/vim-expert/
For basics: https://dev.to/arunkrish11/vim-is-gem-3kh7
Text objects: https://dev.to/thinhkhang97/vim-key-combinations-to-change-text-2apc
To get some ideas what is possible: https://dev.to/zanepearton/vim-text-editor-15-must-know-commands-for-developers-29n7
Romain Lafourcade Vim-related gists: https://gist.github.com/romainl/4b9f139d2a8694612b924322de1025ce
Idiomatic vimrc: https://github.com/romainl/idiomatic-vimrc
Some more notes on Vim can also be found in my field notes: https://github.com/vbd/Fieldnotes/blob/main/vim.md
Imho best YouTube video: How to Do 90% of What Plugins Do (With Just Vim): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA2WjJbmmoM

Whoami

In more than 30 years in IT project support and software development, I have taken on numerous roles, e.g. developer, lead developer, troubleshooter, "care taker", head of xxx, Scrum Master, Product Owner, project manager, moron on duty etc. - from conception to implementation.

I'm using Vim since ~1997.

I have seen many programs come and go. Vim has always been there. I have never regretted learning Vim. And I am still learning something new. There is only one thing you should avoid: adjust your Vim config daily ;)

I'm slowly publishing my expierences as dev to GitHub converting projects notes etc. sitting in paper and several large text and markdown files. If you like check to out my field notes: https://github.com/vbd/Fieldnotes

What’s the Golang Pareto for an Golang developer?

Volker B. Duetsch — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 11:11:23 +0000

A few days ago I read the post "What’s the VIM Pareto for an IT professional?" on reddit and it gave me the idea to ask exactly the same for Golang.

I am aware that many things depend on the developer's area of responsibility. The answer of a CLI/TUI developer looks different than someone who writes microservices or web applications or desktop applications. I would just be interested in your answer, maybe with a small addition of what you focus on developing.

Which modules of the standard library and additional libs do you think of or what from Golang roadmap belongs to the 20% of Golang to do 80% of the Golang dev's tasks in your opinion?

Thank you for your answer!

DEV Community: Volker B. Duetsch