vim_talk_notes

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Fundamental techniques for mastering vim:

First: Reading the freakin' manual vim is the best-documented open source tool I've ever used a ton of effort has gone into the help the ROI is high two problems: it takes some practice you're gonna forget what you read

Second: Keep a cheat sheet on your desk learning vim is a process of accretion gradually increase by the steady addition of smaller parts the only way to become an expert is by steadily learning commands the best way to learn lots of commands is by focusing on a few at a time keep your eyes open for chances to use the command to build muscle memory, you must use it in practice i'll back up

Third: Keep a tool sharpening list annoyances and inefficiencies :Q bound to :q example (question, show of hands) slowly sanding down the rough edges in your environment Don't break your flow, come back to it Put it on the back of your cheat sheet

Fourth: Learn all the single-letter commands Pareto or 80/20 quiz yourself: what does t do? capital t? semicolon? graphical cheat sheet: http://www.viemu.com/a_vi_vim_graphical_cheat_sheet_tutorial.html

Bonus: stay on the home row don't use the arrow keys -- quit cold turkey; it's my one wish don't use escape (can use C-[)

If you do these five fundamental things, you are well on your way to vim mastery. IF you fall asleep now, you'll have already seen the most-important stuff. After these, the rest of what I'm going to show you is just gravy.
But sometimes the gravy is the best part, so let's dig in.

Total noob? Use vimtutor.

Discuss the layout of the rest of the talk.

RTFM two most-important commands: C-], C-o :h buffers recommend Editing Effectively what if you don't know what you want? tab complete and C-d #vim on freenode vimtips wiki: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Vim_Tips_Wiki life, the universe, and everything = 42

Grab-bag Command-t Registers
named with " and a letter/number 1-9 hold last 9 deletes Unnamed register is default target for yanks, deletes. default source for puts Named registers "% - useful for sourcing vimrc "0 last yank Macros macros are related to registers macro is just a recording of keystrokes into a register tips for reusability move the cursor by searching pay attention to the start and end points Marks A-Z are global 0-9 where you exited vim Text states (think branches of undo tree): g-, g+, :earlier, :later Bind lots of leaders mine my dotfiles for ideas: http://github.com/r00k/dotfiles :set number so you can jump to lines (holdng j or k is a vim smell) gi (go to last insert) caw Change/delete inside ( { " ' c-o for undoing jumps C-s

IDE-like functionality diffthis

Tags setup: install exuberant ctags, run ctags -R in rails dir (after vendoring rails so it can pick up tags) C-] on identifiers, or :tag :ts[elect] for tags with mult. matches

Rails.vim
:help rails to learn all commands Rcontroller --> jump to controller RVcontroller --> " " " in vertical split RScontroller --> " " " in horizontal split Rmigration --> jump to latest migration Rinvert --> writes the self.down of a migration for you! Rake in a fileruns tests or migrations Rextract will extract a partial highlighted in visual mode

(surround.vim) cs = change surroundings ex: cs'" <-- change surrounding single quotes to double-quotes ds = delete surroundings ysw' <-- surround this w(ord) with single quotes

Snipmate defp defs kjefp deft each ed cla (multi-choice AND calls out to vim) easy to write your own

If you liked this talk, you might like my screencast: Vim for Rails Developers -- https://thoughtbot.com/upcase/vim-for-rails-developers