What is Vim Editor?
Vim (Vi IMproved) is a highly configurable text editor used by programmers and system administrators for efficient text editing. It is an enhanced version of the older vi editor, providing many features and improvements.
Why Use Vim?
- Efficiency: Vim's key bindings allow you to perform complex text manipulation tasks quickly.
- Customizability: Vim can be extensively customized through configuration files and plugins.
- Portability: Vim is available on almost every Unix-like system and has ports for other platforms.
- Lightweight: It is lightweight and fast, making it ideal for use on remote servers and systems with limited resources.
Installing Vim
=> On Linux
=> On macOS
=> On Windows
Download the installer from Vim's official website and follow the instructions.
Basic Usage
Starting Vim
To start Vim, type vim in your terminal followed by the name of the file you want to edit:
Modes in Vim
Vim operates in several modes, each serving a different purpose:
- Normal Mode: The default mode for navigation and text manipulation.
- Insert Mode: For inserting text. Enter by pressing i in Normal Mode.
- Visual Mode: For selecting text. Enter by pressing v in Normal Mode.
- Command-Line Mode: For running commands. Enter by pressing : in Normal Mode.
Switching Between Modes
- Normal Mode to Insert Mode: Press i
- Insert Mode to Normal Mode: Press Esc
- Normal Mode to Visual Mode: Press v
- Normal Mode to Command-Line Mode: Press :
Basic Navigation in Normal Mode
- h: Move left
- j: Move down
- k: Move up
- l: Move right
- 0: Move to the beginning of the line
- $: Move to the end of the line
- w: Move to the beginning of the next word
- b: Move to the beginning of the previous word
- G: Move to the bottom of the file
- gg: Move to the top of the file
Basic Editing in Normal Mode
- i: Enter insert mode before the cursor
- a: Enter insert mode after the cursor
- o: Open a new line below the current line and enter insert mode
- O: Open a new line above the current line and enter insert mode
- x: Delete the character under the cursor
- dd: Delete the current line
- dw: Delete from the cursor to the end of the word
- d$: Delete from the cursor to the end of the line
- u: Undo the last change
- Ctrl + r: Redo the undone change
Visual Mode
- v: Enter visual mode to select text
- V: Enter visual line mode to select entire lines
- Ctrl + v: Enter visual block mode to select blocks of text
- y: Yank (copy) the selected text
- d: Delete the selected text
- p: Paste the copied text after the cursor
- P: Paste the copied text before the cursor
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Command-Line Mode
- :w: Save the current file
- :q: Quit Vim
- :wq: Save and quit Vim
- !: Quit without saving changes
- filename: Open another file
- filename: Save the file with a new name
- :help: Open Vim help documentation
Advanced Features
Search and Replace
- /pattern: Search for a pattern in the file. Use n to move to the next occurrence and N to move to the previous one.
- :%s/old/new/g: Replace all occurrences of old with new in the file.
- /old/new/g: Replace all occurrences of old with new in the current line.
Working with Multiple Files
- :n: Open the next file in the argument list
- :prev: Open the previous file in the argument list
- filename: Open a file in a new horizontal split
- filename: Open a file in a new vertical split
- Ctrl + w w: Switch between open windows
Macros
- qa: Start recording a macro into register a
- q: Stop recording
- @a: Play the macro stored in register a
Customization and Plugins
Configuration File
Vim's behavior can be customized using a configuration file (.vimrc). Common settings include:
syntax on " Enable syntax highlightingset number " Show line numbersset tabstop=4 " Number of spaces that a <Tab> in the file counts forset shiftwidth=4 " Number of spaces to use for each step of (auto)indentset expandtab " Use spaces instead of tabsset autoindent " Copy indent from current line when starting a new lineset clipboard=unnamedplus " Use the system clipboard
Installing Plugins
Vim can be extended with plugins. Popular plugin managers include Pathogen, Vundle, and Vim-Plug. Here's how to use Vim-Plug:
- Install Plugins: Open Vim and run:
Conclusion
Vim is a powerful and efficient text editor with a steep learning curve but offers immense benefits once mastered. This guide provides a foundational understanding of Vim, but the key to becoming proficient is practice and exploring more advanced features and customizations.
Happy Learning !
FAQs
Vim (Vi IMproved) is a highly configurable text editor used by programmers and system administrators for efficient text editing. It is an enhanced version of the older vi editor, providing many features and improvements.
Why do people use Vim still? ›
Knowing how to use vim may not be the most essential part of being a developer. However, knowing and using it increases your productivity and you can write a lot of code in a very short time. You can use Vim in mostly every modern Text Editor/IDE: IdeaVim in all JetBrains products.
Is Vim actually useful? ›
While the path to mastering Vim may seem daunting, the endless possibilities it offers in terms of speed, health benefits, and adaptability make it a skill worth acquiring.
Why would anyone use Vim on Reddit? ›
Vim's undo/redo system is unbeatable. Type something, undo, type something else, and you can still get back the first thing you typed because Vim uses an undo tree rather than a stack. In almost every other program, the history of the first thing you typed is lost in this circ*mstance.
What makes Vim so special? ›
It's based on shortcuts, called the Vim language, which can make coding and writing faster and more efficient. With Vim, you can jump to any specific text position and rapidly make precise edits.
Why do people use Vim instead of IDE? ›
Understanding the Underlying Processes: While IDEs provide powerful debugging and automation features, they often abstract away the intricate details of program execution. Vim, being a lightweight text editor, encourages a deeper understanding of the underlying processes.
What should I use instead of Vim? ›
Emacs, Neovim, Atom, Notepad++, and Sublime Text are the most popular alternatives and competitors to Vim.
Why don't people like Vim? ›
Time-consuming… Vim is one of those text editors which is very time-consuming to configure and get used to but is NOT worth it. And I'm saying this as my opinion genuinely. I spend around 3–4 years having my own highly configured vimrc file and also got used to the basic workflow of vim.
Why can't you quit Vim? ›
Vim operates in different modes, each with a distinct purpose and set of commands. To exit Vim, the editor needs to be in Normal mode. To switch to Normal mode, press the Escape key. When switching from Insert mode, you should see the ––INSERT–– label disappear from the lower-left corner.
What is the disadvantage of Vim? ›
Here are some disadvantages of using Vim as an IDE: Steep learning curve: Vim has a steep learning curve, especially for beginners.
Learn keybindings using Vimtutor
For getting to grips with the keybindings I highly recommend using Vimtutor – Vim's inbuilt tutorial. The vimtutor can be accessed by simply typing Vimtutor into your terminal (if vim has already successfully been installed).
Why should I switch to Vim? ›
The advantage of vim is that you can quickly edit files from command line and has very advanced text processing capabilities. But again, a good IDE can do all this.
Is Vim overhyped? ›
It might be overhyped as a programming tool (you won't write 2x the same amount of lines in a day; you will not be 5x more productive), but as an editor, it deserves every single bit of hype that it has. No other editor stands next to vim.
What is the point of Vim? ›
Vim is a text editor for Unix that comes with Linux, BSD, and macOS. It is known to be fast and powerful, partly because it is a small program that can run in a terminal (although it has a graphical interface). It is mainly because it can be managed entirely without menus or a mouse with a keyboard.
Do most programmers use Vim? ›
If we look at the StackOverflow survey for 2019 about the most popular development environments, Vim is still there on the 5th place, with around 25% of Web Developers using it.
Why should I use Vim instead of Vscode? ›
This is another area where Vim shines. Vim runs in the terminal and can be used in any environment, whether a GUI is present or not. Vim has the same keybinding set across all operating systems, unlike Vscode, which has different shortcuts for Linux, Mac, and Windows. So with Vim, you learn once and use it everywhere.
Why every software engineer should use Vim? ›
VIM (or more exactly, the VIM motions) is far superior to a normal text editor. It gives you the power to edit code by it's properties. You can move by lines, words, paragraphs, parentheses, you name it. You use syntactic logic to move, edit, jump to definitions, you name it.
Why Vim is the best text editor? ›
There are several reasons for this: Its power: Vim users benefit from powerful search and replace functions. Its features: for example, automatic completion, file comparison, advanced searches, command line history, online help, spell checking, block operations, scripting language, etc.
