viHello! This is the markdown transcript for a presentation held on October 13th. You can view the writeup in PDF format here.
Note that the first section discussing why Vim? and History were cut due to recording errors. Sorry about that!
Why Vim?
ex command line text editor.vivim) was created by Bram Moolenaar in 1988 as a clone of vi.vim is a superset of vi, introducing new features such as syntax highlighting, undo/redo, screen splitting, and plugin support.vi, vim has also been ported to a wide range of OS’s.vim and its derivatives make up one of the most most popular text editor families.We will try to learn:
vimvim without restarting your computer...1Modes vim is known for a modal editing scheme.
What is modal editing?
In vim, various things that you typically do while editing text is split into different modes.
| Mode | Purpose | How to Enter |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | Move around and manipulate existing text | Default, can return to by pressing in other modes |
| Insert | Allows you to type text like in any standard editor | i, a, x, c, o, among others in Normal mode |
| Visual | Allows you to select regions of text as if you were using a mouse | v, Shift + v, Ctrl + v in Normal mode |
| Command | Allows you to execute commands like save and exit | : in Normal mode |
There are other additional modes that vim has out-of-the-box, but these are the basics.
Why should editing be split into modes?
Modes allow for vim perform actions using simple and easy to remember keystroke sequences! These are known as motions!
Navigating can be done with h, j, k, l in Normal mode. These corrispond to <Left>, <Down>, <Up>, <Right> respectively.2
This allows you to keep your hands on the home-row of your keyboard (especially good if you are a touch-typist)!
Additionally, an arbitrary number can be prefixed to modify motions.
One usecase is 5 + j, which moves down 5 lines in one input sequence.
How can you easily remember these keybinds?
Most keybinds are mnemonics for their corrisponding action.
insert enters Insert modeappend is the same as insert, but starts inserting at the character after the cursorx-out deletes a single characterdelete takes your selection and deletes itchange deletes your selection and enters Insert modeThere are a billion keybinds in vim, so don’t fret about learning all of them at once. Learning as you go is the method here!
vim motions are extremely powerful. They let you condense the work of selecting text and changing it into easy to remember input sequences!
cc lets you delete a line and start retyping text in one shot (change a line)! Double pressing most actions will allow you to apply it to the line your cursor is on.
Before
This is a sentence!
The cursor is below this line.
_Emacs users are stinky :(
another wacky line!After
This is a sentence!
The cursor is below this line.
|
another wacky line!dw lets you delete a word.
The works to specify your selection after any action! So, this will work with too!
Before
This is a sentence!
The cursor is below this line.
_Emacs users are stinky :(
another wacky line!After
This is a sentence!
The cursor is below this line.
_users are stinky :(
another wacky line!Commands can be chained too! 2k and dip Lets you move 2 up (k) and delete the inner paragraph.
Before
This is a sentence!
The cursor is below this line.
_Emacs users are stinky :(
another wacky line!After
_Other useful actions include (but not all)...
o and O which creates a new line below/above the current line respectivelygg and G which puts the cursor at the top/bottom of the filezz which centers the editing windowb and e goes to the beginning and end of the word your cursor is currently on.y to copy (d cuts) and p to pasteu and Ctrl + r to undo and redo.<< and >> to change indentation levels in code.There are lots of commands in vim, just like actions, but we’ll just go over a few. To enter Command mode, just prepend a : before typing it!
:write or :w saves your file3:quit or :q quits Vim4:%s/<regex>/<regex>/gc lets you find and replace:help <command> brings up the help-page for any Vim commandYou can also chain commands, so :wq for example saves your file and exits in one shot.
Also, / and ? let you search within your document.5 n and N let you go backwards/forwards through your search results.
Lets try a hands-on demo!
Firstly, open a terminal!
Windows
Open one of the following:
You’ll need to ssh into malware.cs.uic.edu.
Syntax: ssh userXX@malware.cs.uic.edu, where XX is a number between 1-25.
MacOS
Simply go to Applications > Utilities > Terminal and type vim, its included by default!
Linux
Open your terminal of choice, install vim if you need to (tho it should be included by default...), and run vim.
Challenge!
I want you to create a simple C program using vim and sucessfully compile it! It can be as simple as "Hello, World!" if you’d like!
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
printf("Hello World!\n");
}If thats too easy for you, try these extra challenges:
vim at any point when writing the programClosing Remarks
vim.vim, try out vimtutor which is a guided tutorial to learn Vim.Me :3
The information in this presentation will be made available on our website!
https://lug.cs.uic.edu
Join our Discord!
October 13, 2023