Vim

Vim is a text editor, accessible from a command-line interface. It’s a great tool for quick edits on a single file, without needing to open a full separate text editor.

There are four modes of operation:

• Command mode — We start in this mode by default and can switch to any mode from here. To switch back to this mode, we can press Esc.
  • Command-line mode allows us to enter commands (see below). We enter by pressing : in command mode.
• Insert mode — Used to edit the contents of the file, accessible by pressing i.
• Visual mode — Used to visually select text and run commands over that section of code, accessible by pressing v.

Neovim is a popular fork of Vim with a huge amount of extensions and extra feature support.

Commands

Command-line mode

Important commands for exiting:

• :w to save the file without exiting.
• :q to exit the editor.
• :wq to write the file to disc and exit.
• :q! to exit the editor and ignore changes made.
• ZZ to save and quit.

Normal mode

• "*yy to copy the current line.
• "*yG to copy the entire file.
• dd to cut the current line.
• p to paste.
• x to delete the character after the cursor.
• u to undo the last operation.
• Shift+v to select the whole line.

Visual mode

• y to copy selected text.
• d to cut selected text.
• To paste the text:
  • p for after the cursor.
  • P for before the cursor.

Getting around

For full screen navigation:¹

• To replace the standard arrow keys:
  • h goes left one character.
  • j goes down.
  • k goes up.
  • l goes right.
• gg to move the cursor to the first line.
• #G to move the cursor to the # line.
• GG to move the cursor to the last line.
• zt to move screen such that the cursor’s at the top.
• zb to move the screen so the cursor’s at the bottom.
• zz to centre screen on the cursor.

• CTRL+f to move the cursor forward a full page.
• CTRL+b to move the cursor backwards a full page.
• CTRL+u to move the cursor up a half page.
• CTRL+d to move the cursor down half page.

Resources

• The Vim Learning Curve is a Myth, by Ben Orenstein

Footnotes

1. From this Reddit comment. ↩