VIM The Ultimate Editor

VIM editor is one of the most beloved, but often misunderstood editor in existence. Let’s configure it from a noobs perspective and show you it’s power.

Timestamps:
00:00 Why bother with VIM?
03:06 Vim Cheatsheet
03:41 Exiting VIM the RIGHT WAY!
04:22 VIM Modes and Basic Movement
09:42 VIM Tutor
12:00 Real World Sys Admin Example fstab
16:07 VIM Plugins
21:15 The first vimrc file .

[chrissaltmarsh]

I'm 72, used Bill Joy's vi in the late 80's
The muscle memory is still with with me (I use neovim now)
It was, and is, brilliant if you want to write code while concentrating on thinking about the code you are writing or editing.
You learn how to transfer thoughts to a keyboard without really thinking about how.
That is what is so clever about the original vi. Designed to do what you need.

[cdey]

I switched from vscode to Vim a few months ago and I can not stress enought how much I love it. And imo, it's not just for programers if you write blogs it's a must have!

[VictorRodriguez-zpdo]

20:44 - An alternative to this that a lot of people use is remapping your Caps lock key to escape, an even better alternative is remapping your caps lock key to escape AND control, so that when you press caps lock alone it's registered as escape and when you press it with another key it counts as CTRL. In Linux there's this package called caps2esc which does that (it does it for every program not just VIM). When I discovered this I felt like a kid in a toy shop

[yvrelna]

Coming from a Vim veteran here, there's nothing wrong with mouse=a

Keyboard moves are great for quick and precise movements, but there are times when using the mouse just makes a lot of sense, like when you're browsing texts without specific aim and doesn't actually need to edit anything. Don't feel like you have to use the keyboard all the time, the mouse is there to be used.

The problem is if you're using the mouse as a crutch instead of actually learning vim keyboard keys. That'll make it hard to actually improve your editing efficiency.

[drescherjm]

I used to be descent at vim in the 1990s when remotely programming on unix at the university however I have unfortunately forgotten everything about it and stick to nano from a terminal for at least the last 15 or so years.

[rkdeshdeepak]

The Primeagen can convince someone who doesn't even have a computer just by his excitement

[sysandy]

I've been a vi(m) user for the past 20+ years. I started my sysadmin career working on Solaris 2.6 and BSDi systems which were pretty primitive compared to today. I will say that even though I have been a long time user I still learn a new trick now and then. You will be surprised by how quickly those key strokes become muscle memory. Also, I always set vi keybindings (set -o vi) in my shell; try it if you have not already done so.

[sandmanxo]

I was a vi user since the 90s and switched to vim 3 years ago when a coworker was using it. It's the first thing I install on any distro, or even inside dockers containers.

[KeepEveryGuessing]

Do be sure that you can use it without your customized settings. A great advantage to vim is that it's always there on a Linux box. In fact, there is some advantage to knowing how to get by in vi, because the *nix systems that aren't Llinux may not have vim, but will have vi, and the basics are the same. (I prefer emacs myself, but that's rarely pre-installed on other peoples boxed. I started out with TECO - old old guy - which was what Stallman originally wrote emace in, since it was a highly programmable editor even way back then.)

BTW, the direction for the arrow keys is that the DEC VT-52 and others had arrows over the letters on HJKL keys. I believe that HACK, a game from those days uses the same direction keys, or did.

And vi, and maybe vim, has exed mode (:ex<CR>), harkening back to when we edited on printing terminals like teletype machines (I did my thesis on an Execuport 300 in the TJ6 markup language). Probably not worth it for you, but it's good to know if you wind up having to edit over a VERY slow connection, where having your screen constantly updated is just untenable.

[mithubopensourcelab]

This will be my 149th attempt to learn Vim after watching your video. Thanks Chris.

[mateiberatco]

"The first thing to learn"...to exit: I remember an article comparing Windows (XP or 98) to Linux where the reviewer gave point to Windows because he couldn't shutdown Linux. It worked for a whole week (Linux stability), but he wanted to turn off his PC during the night.

[MrKristian]

15:08 Oooo! For this I would use the multi cursor plugin. Select the content you want to search, then CTRL + N to duplicate the cursor till you've selected all of them, and then now you have selected all of them.
I don't think I can link the github page, because I'm getting the feeling youtube is hiding comments containing links

[zeocamo]

the g in the substituting is for global, and if you first select the lines with visual mode, then it will only run on the selected lines, then you can do(without %) :s/"//g and without the g here it will only replace the first " on the line

[avocado]

Vim is like the alphabets for any language; the sooner you learn it, the sooner you benefit from knowing it. Similarly, the sooner you learn how to touch type, the sooner you benefit from the productivity that comes with knowing where ASDF is on the keyboard. Only you and you alone will benefit from Vim's high productivity until death do you part.

[danmarvarela]

One of the many things I learned using vim is one could map H and L to :bprev and :bnext respectively in nomal mode to move left and right between open buffers just for the muscle memory (since h and l navigates left and right respectively). H is for moving the cursor on top of the screen but one could use gg for that. L is for moving the cursor to the bottom of the buffer but one could use G instead.

[zeocamo]

4:30 no it is not the only 3 modes, you can do a :h vim-modes for the full list and more details but it is notmal, visual, select, insert, command-line, ex, terminal, operator-pending, replace, virtual replace, insert normal, insert visual and insert select mode.

so that is 13 modes not 3 but 13

[zeocamo]

if you start with neovim in stand of vim, it is more new user friendly with mouse support out of the box, and better default settings making it easier to get start.

[jefferygrantham]

Instant like for quickly addressing the "how to exit vim" argument. ZZ and ZQ for the win! String replacements in vim are magical also. Syntax is just like using sed. Undotree is one of my absolute favorite plugins for vim using vundle.

[gwgux]

He finally did a video dedicated to Vim! Good coverage on it! Vim is a beast where there's always more to learn for how to use it in new ways, especially with the plugins. At least you don't need to be an expert to be proficient and able to benefit from it. Learn the basics and you'll already start being more efficient in how you edit files.

[RobotechII]

I switched to Vim back in 2015 and it's been amazing. I need to go through my plugins and remove the old junk and look for new plugins. To learn Vim you need to immerse yourself completely and not lean on any crutches and you'll be competent within a week.