Getting Started with Vim in Visual Studio Code

In this developer productivity video, I go over why you should use Vim commands in VS Code and help you get started with the Vim extension. I also go over my Vim coding workflow.

== [ Timestamps ] ==
00:00 Intro
00:47 Why Vim?
01:25 Vim Use Case
03:54 Normal Mode Philosophy
04:30 Vim Setup in VS Code
07:30 Outro

== [ Tags ] ==
#suboptimal #vscode #vim

[Tantandev]

When you learn Vim you never want to edit code without it, it's so incredibly efficient and ergonomic

[RawkHawkRockin]

I've been wanting to improve my workflow for a while now and reduce the mouse and the arrow keys usage within VSCode. I've always known about vim but never tried to learn. There's for sure a lot of material online, one can easily get lost, but I think I have found the perfect channel for productivity and workflow tips, to get me jump started. I have already watched some of your vids and will do more, you explain in a clear way and showcase common use cases where ergonomics can be optimized, thanks for sharing :)

[BrianGwaltney]

Another simpler way to enable tabs:

Go to the normal keybinding as you show in the video and right click on it. Select the "Change When Expression" and remove the !editorReadonly option. Same for outdent and shift tab.

[sanyamjha]

Having switched from mac to pc, it takes a lot of effort to map all the keys and commands, especially with the home, end, page up and down keys. So having keybindings like Vim is quite "universal" and definitely helps.

[Mersal-ujnh]

Your channel looks great for frontend developers. Productivity+Tailwind+Vue=🔥❤️

[RahulPandeyrkp]

Sounds like setting up Vim is pretty straightforward, I'll need to try it. The defaults are just so ingrained though...

[NatePerdomo]

Copy the JSON additions below.

To access settings.json:
CMD + Shift + P then type "Open User Settings (JSON)"

To access keybindings.json:
Open Keyboard Shortcuts editor and select the Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON) button on the right of the editor title bar.
or
CMD + Shift + P then type "Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON)"

settings.json:
"vim.insertModeKeyBindings": [
{
"before": ["k", "j"],
"after":["<Esc>"]
}
],



keybindings.json:
{
"key": "tab",
"command": "tab",
"when": "editorTextFocus && !editorTabMovesFocus"
},
{
"key": "shift+tab",
"command": "outdent",
"when": "editorTextFocus && !editorTabMovesFocus"
}

[diggee]

Great video. Good information with explanations at a nice pace.
Too many YouTube “so-called tutorials” simply show stuff without adequate explanations.

[hemanthkotagiri]

5:35 "The only way you can enter vim mode is by pressing escape". I don't understand why you call it the vim mode rather than normal mode, but you can enter into normal mode from insert mode using ctrl + c (C_c) or even ctrl + [. I use these two all the time.

[GoogleUser-uvbo]

Vim helped me to relieve my wrist pain alot.
&& it also follows atomic habits temptation bundling!!!

[shawnbeans]

thanks for leaving your configuration in the description <3

[hemanthkotagiri]

It's not the case that Vim doesn't have the tab to indent feature, it's just that the keybinding is different. Visually select some text and Use the ">" or "<" (without quotes) to tab over.

[channalbert]

I don't know if this will work for everyone, but if you really want fluidity between normal and insert mode, the fastest thing is probably to remap (through iOS, Linux or Windows config files) the keys "Esc" to "Caps Lock" and vice versa (since most of us don't really use Caps Lock not even once a month but Esc is one of the most used keys if you use vim keystrokes)

[codewithtonny]

hello thank you so much for this it actually incresed my productivity

[dominikm]

Hi, just found your channel today!
Really like your videos, subscribed.

[RTCDigitalS]

nice vid, also learned outro was a thing!

[sdev]

Could you make a video on your vim setup? (more vim related content) I think its really good, as you have a better experience with vim.

[sainathsingineedi]

I remapped ii to esc and thanks for that <tab> tip.

[isaacdouglas]

This was helpful for me, thank you. Personally, I prefer to not add tabs in normal mode because I prefer that only insert mode has the potential to augment the code.

[ayoolao.]

In vscodevim, You know whenever you go to a line and hit ci' you delete whatever is inside the single quotes and you are left into insert mode. This works regardless of your cursor position on the row.

Well how can I do the same with parentheses or curly brackets because currently, this works only if my cursor it at the opening bracket or between both.

Example: a = (1234, 123)

If I want to change inside the parentheses I would go to the line, f(ci( Whereas if it was surrounded by quotes it would work from any column on the row.

How can I do it with other text objects without remapping keys?

Thanks