Vim

Metadata

Hello! This is the markdown transcript for a presentation held on October 13th. You can view the writeup in PDF format here.

Video Recording

Note that the first section discussing why Vim? and History were cut due to recording errors. Sorry about that!

Why Vim?

Why Vim?

• Simple and ubiquitous text editor
• Usable in a terminal
• Keyboard-centric, meaning that a mouse is optional
• Vim’s version of modal input is popular and commonly emulated
• Part of the POSIX standard!

History

• Vi(no -m) was created by Bill Joy in 1976 for the Second BSD.
• It is the visual mode for the ex command line text editor.
• Vi was created for remote editing over a 300 baud modem, which transmitted text slower than you can read!

• Vi iMproved (vim) 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.
• Like vi, vim has also been ported to a wide range of OS’s.
• Today, vim and its derivatives make up one of the most most popular text editor families.

Basic Knowledge

Goals

We will try to learn:

• How to switch between the different modes of vim
• How to navigate around a text document using modal keybindings
• Methods for remembering the the mnemonics
• How to select, manipulate, and insert text into files
• How to quit vim without restarting your computer...¹

Modes

Modes 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.

There are other additional modes that vim has out-of-the-box, but these are the basics.

Why should editing be split into modes?

Keybinds

Modes allow for vim perform actions using simple and easy to remember keystroke sequences! These are known as motions!

Example

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)!

Example 2

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 mode
• append is the same as insert, but starts inserting at the character after the cursor
• x-out deletes a single character
• delete takes your selection and deletes it
• change deletes your selection and enters Insert mode
• etc.

There 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!

Example 1

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!

Example 2

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!

Example 3

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 respectively
• gg and G which puts the cursor at the top/bottom of the file
• zz which centers the editing window
• b and e goes to the beginning and end of the word your cursor is currently on.
• y to copy (d cuts) and p to paste
• u and Ctrl + r to undo and redo.
• << and >> to change indentation levels in code.

Commands

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 command

You 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.

Crash Course

Lets try a hands-on demo!

Firstly, open a terminal!

• Windows
  Open one of the following:

  • Powershell
  • PuTTy

  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:

• Don’t use the arrow keys at all
• Write your program in Rust instead
• Do not leave vim at any point when writing the program

Closing Remarks

• This was a very surface-level introduction to vim.
  Some features not covered include:
  • Vim Modelines
  • Multiplexing buffers
  • Macros
  • Plugins
• Don’t fret if this is alot of information at once! It’s important to start small and learn what you need as you go.
• If you want to practice more with vim, try out vimtutor which is a guided tutorial to learn Vim.
• Don’t be afraid to reference a cheatsheet like https://vim.rtorr.com/ when learning!
• As always, practice makes perfect.

Me :3

The information in this presentation will be made available on our website!
https://lug.cs.uic.edu

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October 13, 2023