Links: Vim
Vim uses a Modal editing approach where keys can change it’s function depending on the mode that you’re in.
There are 4 major modes.
Normal Mode
This is the default mode when you open the editor.
Each key in this mode represents a different command or function, they don’t insert any text!
Insert Mode
Insert mode is very similar of what you would find on a regular editor, and to get into it you just need to press i while
in normal mode. Now you can type whatever you want, use backspace to delete and even use the arrow keys to move.
- To exit insert mode and go back to normal you can press the ESC key
- Another way to enter insert mode is with pressing a in this case the cursor will be after the character instead of before.
- You could also use the o command to create a new line at the same time you enter insert mode.
Power user tip
You can rebind Caps lock to ESC to have it closer to the keyboard home row and switch between modes at light speed.
Visual Mode
To enter visual mode type v while in normal mode.
You can use all the movement commands, you’ll see that the selection follows the cursor starting from where it was first.
Other than movement you can use some commands like y yank, d delete and c change and those will be executed on the selection.
There are also two other variants of visual mode:
Visual Line
To enter Visual Line mode the command is uppercase V, this selects the text divided in lines.
Notice that if you have line wrap activated you may see more than one line while it’s only one real one, so vim will interpret it as such.
Visual Block
To enter Visual Block the command is Ctr-v, this selects text in a block.
It’s a great feature, as it allow you to select text vertically as well as horizontally!
You can also use I and A to insert at the beginning or end of the selection, this will act as a multicursor, inserting the text in all the lines you had selected.
Command Mode
To get into Command Mode press :, you’ll notice that you can now write in a line similar to what we do for searching, but when you press Enter whatever you wrote will be executed.
This are some of the commands that you’ll want to use more often:
| command | description |
|---|---|
:help d | show help for command “d” |
:w | write file |
:w foo | write on file called “foo” |
:q | quit vim |
:q! | quit vim without saving |
:wq | write file and quit vim |
:e foo | open file called “foo” |
:!ls | execute ls command on system shell |
:r !ls | read output of ls command and insert it |