A very quick introductory course on VIM, a programmers text editor. Part of our standard training courses for offshore software developers at Zeropoint.IT.

1. Introduction
Getting started with vim
Tasks
Search and replace
Configuration
vim – Vi IMproved, a programmers text editor
Bart Van Loon
31st January 2012
1 / 30 Bart Van Loon vim – Vi IMproved, a programmers tex

2. Introduction
Getting started with vim
Tasks
Search and replace
Configuration
1 Introduction
2 Getting started with vim
Introduction
Starting and quitting
The cursor
Editing text
3 Tasks
4 Search and replace
5 Configuration
2 / 30 Bart Van Loon vim – Vi IMproved, a programmers tex

3. Introduction
Getting started with vim
Tasks
Search and replace
Configuration
How it all began: vi
A part of history
text editor originally created for UNIX
old: first release in 1976 (Open Source: BSD license)
but modern: 2009 survey by Linux Journal → vi[m] most
widely used text editor (36%); second place: gedit (19%)
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4. Introduction
Getting started with vim
Tasks
Search and replace
Configuration
How it all began: vi
Modal editor
vi is a modal editor:
insert mode: typed text becomes part of the document
normal mode: keystrokes are interpreted as commands
i in normal mode: switch to insert mode; i again at this
point: place an “i” character in the document
esc in insert mode: switch to normal mode
advantage: both text editing and command operations
without requiring removal of hands from the home row
⇒ speed!
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5. Introduction
Getting started with vim
Tasks
Search and replace
Configuration
How it all began: vi
It breaks my fingers!
Many ideas, shortcuts, keystrokes, . . . can be explained by looking
at a common computer keyboard from the seventies.
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6. Introduction
Getting started with vim
Tasks
Search and replace
Configuration
How it all began: vi
Contemporary derivatives and clones
vi: traditional vi ported to modern systems
vim: (“Vi IMproved”) vi with many more features
elvis: once popular clone with some extra features
nvi: default derivative shipped with all BSDs
vile: attempt to mix emacs and vi
...
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7. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
vim
Introduction
first released publicly in 1991 (Open Source charityware)
still actively developed and maintained
cross platform
additional features specifically designed for editing source code
customisable through plugins and vimscript
described as “very much compatible with vi”, but not 100%
huge community constantly at war with the emacs-community
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8. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
vim
Sooooooo many features
completion, comparison and merging of files, comprehensive integrated
help system, extended regular expressions, scripting languages (both
native and through alternative scripting interpreters such as Perl, Python,
Ruby, Tcl, etc. . . ) including support for plugins, a graphical user
interface, limited integrated development environment-like features,
mouse interaction (both with and without the GUI), folding, editing of
compressed or archived files in gzip, bzip2, zip, and tar format and files
over network protocols such as SSH, FTP, and HTTP, session state
preservation, spell checking, split (horizontal and vertical) and tabbed
windows, unicode and other multi-language support, syntax highlighting,
trans-session command, search and cursor position histories, multiple
level undo/redo history which can persist across editing sessions, visual
mode, . . .
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9. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
Getting started
Starting vim
vim; or
vim <filename>; or
vim [options] <filename>
One useful option is +<n>, which opens the file and immediately
puts the cursor on line <n>.
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10. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
Getting started
Modes
by default you start in normal mode
go to insert mode from normal mode
type i to start entering text at the cursor
type R to start replacing text at the cursor
type o to open a new line at the cursor
type O to open a new line above the cursor
hit esc to enter normal mode
10 / 30 Bart Van Loon vim – Vi IMproved, a programmers tex

11. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
Getting started
Exiting vim
commands to quit:
: x ← : save and quit
: q ← : just quit
: q ! ← : force quit (without saving!)
shortcut from normal mode:
Z Z : quit and save only if changes were made
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12. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
Moving the cursor
Relative movements:
h : one character left
j : one line down
k : one line up
l : one character right
w : one word forward
b : one word back
Adding a digit multiplies the movement. Try 5 w , 1 2 k ,
2 b , ...
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13. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
Moving the cursor
Absolute movements in the file:
^ or 0 : beginning of the line
$ : end of the line
g g : beginning of the file
G : end of the file
<d> G : line <d>
` . : your last edit
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14. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
Moving the cursor
Absolute movements in the screen (visible area):
H : highest line on the screen
M : middle line on the screen
L : lowest line on the screen
ctrl-f : page (screen) forward
ctrl-b : page (screen) backward
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15. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
Editing text
Inserting text:
i : insert text at the cursor
a : insert text after the cursor (append)
I : insert text at the beginning of the line
A : insert text at the end of the line
In insert mode, you can use the arrow keys to navigate the cursor,
but often going back to normal mode will be much faster.
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16. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
Editing text
Deleting text:
x : delete character at the cursor (delete)
X : delete character before the cursor (backspace)
Replacing text:
r <c> : replace the current character with <c>
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17. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
Visual mode
For selecting areas of text, there is visual mode:
v : start visual mode
V : start visual line mode
ctrl-v : start visual block mode
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18. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
Operators and motions
Example operators:
d : delete
y : yank (copy)
c : change
Example motions1 :
$ : to end of line
G : to end of file
e : to end of current word
1
remember the part on “moving your cursor”?
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19. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
Combining operators and motions
Combining operators and motions generates some really powerful
commands. Some examples are:
y $ : copy from the cursor until the end of the line
d g g : delete from the cursor until the beginning of the file
Now lets add counts to increase the power:
y 3 k : copy the previous 3 lines
d 5 w : delete the next 5 words
19 / 30 Bart Van Loon vim – Vi IMproved, a programmers tex

20. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
More power
Another nice operator:
= : fix indenting
Some other nice motions:
( : to the beginning of the current sentence
) : to the beginning of the next sentence
% : to the matching bracket, parenthesis, braces, . . .
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21. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
Double operators
When entering an operator twice, it operates on the complete
current line:
d d : delete the current line
y y : copy the current line
...
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22. Introduction
Introduction
Getting started with vim
Starting and quitting
Tasks
The cursor
Search and replace
Editing text
Configuration
The put command
To paste previously deleted or yanked (copied) text:
p : put (paste) after the cursor
P : put (paste) before the cursor
Some nice usage examples:
x p : swap the current character with the next one
d d p : swap the current line with the next one
5 p : paste 5 times after the cursor
22 / 30 Bart Van Loon vim – Vi IMproved, a programmers tex

23. Introduction
Getting started with vim
Tasks
Search and replace
Configuration
Repeating tasks
Undo and redo:
You can think of each command (combined or not) as a task.
. : repeat last task
u : undo last task
ctrl-r : undo last undo (redo)
Typing text is also a task!
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24. Introduction
Getting started with vim
Tasks
Search and replace
Configuration
Macros
A group of tasks can be recorded as a macro:
q <a> : start recording macro with name <a>
q : stop recording current macro
@ <a> : replay macro with name <a>
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25. Introduction
Getting started with vim
Tasks
Search and replace
Configuration
Search
To start:
/ <p> ← : forward search for <p>
? <p> ← : backward search for <p>
Afterwards:
n : repeat previous search
N : repeat previous search in opposite direction
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26. Introduction
Getting started with vim
Tasks
Search and replace
Configuration
Search and replace
Structure of the command:
:As/B/C/D←
with:
A : area on which to operate
B : the pattern to search for (regular expression)
C : the new word to replace the found pattern with
D : any flags to fine tune the behaviour
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27. Introduction
Getting started with vim
Tasks
Search and replace
Configuration
Search and replace
Examples areas:
% : the complete file
’<,’> : the selected area
(empty) : the current line
Example flags:
c : confirm each substitution
g : replace all occurrences on one line
i : ignore the case for searching
27 / 30 Bart Van Loon vim – Vi IMproved, a programmers tex

28. Introduction
Getting started with vim
Tasks
Search and replace
Configuration
~/.vim*
your configuration is stored in ~/.vimrc
system-wide configuration is stored in /etc/vimrc
your plugins, languages, . . . live in ~/.vim/
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29. Introduction
Getting started with vim
Tasks
Search and replace
Configuration
The set-command
To change your configuration at runtime, use the set-command.
Examples:
:set spell← to enable spell checking
:set number← show line numbers
:set syntax=<lang>← to highlight according to <lang>
To unset an option, prepend it with no:
:set nospell←
:set nonumber←
...
29 / 30 Bart Van Loon vim – Vi IMproved, a programmers tex

30. Introduction
Getting started with vim
Tasks
Search and replace
Configuration
References
the vimtutor-command
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vim_(text_editor)
https://users.cs.jmu.edu/bernstdh/web/common/
help/vim.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI8TeVMX8pk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3ccIf-cfnQ
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