Category: Vim

Learning Vim is a challenge. There are a lot of keys to remember and Vim works in a different way to other editors. I had an idea about structuring a Vim tutorial like learning a martial art, where each milestone is represented by a belt colour. We start at white belt where we learn the… Continue reading Learning Vim like a Martial Art

In this section, we’ll work through a simple example to get familiar with Vim Macros. We’ll edit a column in a tab separated file (TSV) using a macro. TSV Example Let’s say we have the following tab separated text. Notice the last column, where all the cities are in capital letters: We’ll create a macro… Continue reading Vim Macro Example

Welcome to our final chapter. We made it! Previously, at blue belt level, we covered text-objects. At black belt level, we’ll cover search/replace, macros and window commands. Finally, we’ll explore topics to take you beyond black belt. Search & Replace To replace everything on the current line, type: :s/<search term>/<replace term>/g where the <search term>… Continue reading Getting to Black Belt in Vim – Part 6 – Black Belt

At blue belt level, we covered visual mode and advanced motions. At red belt level, we’ll introduce a powerful new concept. If you’re a developer, they’re a game changer – you can transform text in a few keystrokes. Let’s learn more. Red Belt Text Objects Text objects are a sequence of commands, that let you… Continue reading Getting to Black Belt in Vim – Part 5 – Red Belt

Great work for coming this far! We covered a lot at green belt level.At blue belt level, we’ll cover visual mode, a couple of advanced motions, searching and some more editing commands. Blue Belt Visual Mode We’ll see how to use visual mode with counts and motions later on. Vertical Motions Searching Horizontal Motions Operator… Continue reading Getting to Black Belt in Vim – Part 4 – Blue Belt

In previous posts, we covered basic editing and motions. At green belt level, we’ll learn about getting into insert mode faster i.e. moving to a location and entering insert mode in one command. Then, we’ll cover a few more motions. Finally, we’ll look at jumps and navigating through your jump history. Green Belt Insert Mode… Continue reading Getting to Black Belt in Vim – Part 3 – Green Belt

Now that you’ve mastered the basics at white belt level, let’s get a bit faster. At yellow belt level, we’ll introduce motions and more editing commands. Let’s get started. Yellow Belt A motion is a movement of the cursor, either horizontally or vertically. Horizontal motions: Vertical motions: Edit operators: Repeating You can add a number… Continue reading Getting to Black Belt in Vim – Part 2 – Yellow Belt