VIM

Vi vs Vim vs gVim vs Neovim

• VIM = Vi IMproved
• Vim is the editor that runs in a terminal shell—it has no GUI of its own. gVim is the vim editor with its own GUI
• Neovim is a fork of Vim with additional features. It shares the same confg syntax with Vim.

Starting up

vi may be linked to vim by default:

$ which vi
/usr/bin/vi

$ ls -l /usr/bin/vi
... /usr/bin/vi -> vim

Vim will load ~/.vimrc by default. To specify another file, use

$ vim -u <vimrc>

To use factory setting:

$ vim -u NONE

-N: Not fully Vi compatible, i.e. load vim features

equivalent to ​

set​ nocompatible

Commands

• :: Use Command-Line mode to execute an Ex command
• /: Use Command-Line mode to perform a forward search
• ?: Use Command-Line mode to perform a backward search
• =: Use Command-Line mode to evaluate a Vim script expression

Modes

• Normal Mode

• Insert Mode

• Replace Mode

• Visual Mode

• <Esc>: Switch to Normal mode

• <C-[>: Switch to Normal mode

• <C-o>: Switch to Insert Normal mode

Getting Help

Built-in vim tutorial:

$ vimtutor

or

:h vimtutor

• :help
• :help vi-differences
• :help uganda
• :help 'guioptions'

External Links

http://vimgolf.com/

Retab

:retab

Show whitespace Characters

:set list
:set nolist

Toggle

:set list!

In Vim, list is a boolean option that defaults to off. If list is on, whitespace characters are made visible. The listchars option can be used to customize the way whitespace characters are shown. The default displays ^I for each tab, and $ at each EOL (end of line, so trailing whitespace can be seen). :help 'list'

The following example toggles list, then sets listchars to not display an end-of-line character, and to display > for the first character occupied by a tab, and - for any subsequent characters that the tab may occupy.

:set list!
:set listchars=tab:>-

in vim/vi, when advancing through a line of existing text, say to fix a typo, don't use space or arrow keys. Instead, use W or B, to advance or back up a "big" word at a time. Better still, use 'f' or 'F' to search forward or backwards for target character. Or best (sometimes), use fwd/reverse incremental search. For when you do use repeated cursor motion, ensure that key-repeat kicks in sooner and repeats faster.

" Highlight "bad" spaces
let c_space_errors=1

" Also highlight empty lines at EOF.
match ErrorMsg /\s\+$\| \+\ze\t/

" Enable incremental search.
set incsearch

How To Turn Off Search highlight

To turn off the previous search highlight:

:noh

Or

set nohlsearch

To toggle

set hlsearch!

Backspace(delete) Not Working

Symptom

the backspace does not work

Solution

Add this to ~/.vimrc:

set backspace=2

ctrl-z + fg

• inside vim
• ctrl-z, back to terminal, do something else
• fg back to vim

Multi Windows

switch between windows:

• <Ctrl-w> <Ctrl-w>
• <Ctrl-w> j: down (Move the current window to the bottom of the screen, using the full width of the screen.)
• <Ctrl-w> k: up (Move the current window to the top of the screen, using the full width of the screen.)
• <Ctrl-w> h: left (Move the current window to the left of the screen, using the full height of the screen.)
• <Ctrl-w> l: right (Move the current window to the right of the screen, using the full height of the screen.)
• <Ctrl-w> t: top
• <Ctrl-w> b: bottom

rotate windows:

• <Ctrl-w> r
• <Ctrl-w> R
• <Ctrl-w> x
• <Ctrl-w> X