Learning VIM with Spacemacs

I just don’t grok the vi (yet).

Three weeks ago, I’ve ditched most of my emacs config and installed spacemacs. The main driver was that I wanted to try modal editing instead of emacs key chords. I could’ve tried vim of course, but I’m already invested in emacs and feel at home there.

Evil-mode #

Luckily, there is a brilliant vim emulation in emacs, called evil mode. I didn’t want to spend too much time configuring it though plus I have no idea which vim plugins ported to emacs are worth looking at, so I’ve given spacemacs a go. Spacemacs is a distribution of emacs preconfigured with evil and with an extensive documentation.

Actually, I’m positively surprised how polished it is. Note: I’m using develop branch. Whether you’re an emacs user who wants to try vim-style editing or a vim user who wants to switch to emacs and its superior package ecosystem (well, I just <3 magit) then spacecmacs is worth giving a shot.

Note to future self: doom-emacs is another evil-preconfigured distribution which gets a lot of good feedback recently.

Zen of Vim #

The only problem is that I just don’t know vim :) Of course, I can change a config option on a remote server or scroll through a config file. But my vim knowledge is super limited, I don’t know useful shortcuts or even the philosophy.

I’ve found this a nice post on StackOverflow about the Zen of vim. This motivated me to go through the first series of wonderful vim screencast by Derek Wyatt. My notes form the videos are below in case I’ve ever need to reference them.

How do I like it so far? #

Well, the modal editing is quite a change. I think that after three weeks I’m still a bit less efficient. Actually, the navigation in normal mode feels quite efficient, even if I don’t have the muscle memory yet. I struggle a bit more with writing (like this blog post), the mental shift from modeless, chord-full editing is a bit harder.

On the upside, there is a good IntelliJ plugin emulating vim, so I can work on my muscle memory more :) I use IntelliJ to write Java / Scala at work.

Again, the Derek Wyatt’s set of videos was super helpful (I’ve checked the novice, for now, once I’m comfortable with that I’ll probably go further).

What’ve started as an experiment, to see if there is a better way may become may permanent mode of operation. Stay tuned.

Learning to vi #

Favorites #

Some of my favorite vi / spacemacs tricks

• *  # — search for word under cursor forward / backwards.
• qa  q  @a — start recording macro under a, finish recording, replay. Of course emacs has macros as well, but the vi-style shortcuts are super easy to remember and I use them more often.
• :%s/from/to/g — search and replace in the buffer. Optional c for confirmation.
• C-v — visual block selection. Also, the commands you perform work in a multicursor way.
• . — repeat last editing command.

Vim Videos by Derek Wyatt #

http://derekwyatt.org/vim/tutorials/

BASIC Movement (Screencast 1) #

• word: keyword, doesn’t include ., _ and other special characters
• WORD: up to next space
• count<operator>: the movement commands can take count before them

BASIC Movement (Screencast 2) #

Basic Movement (Screencast 3) #

Basic Editing (Screencast 1) #

Basic Editing (Screencast 2) #

Working with many files #

A bit less useful from spacemacs perspective, but surprisingly most of the keys still work; I’ve aggregated the screencasts here

Vimeo #1

Vimeo #2 (not applicable to spacemacs)

Vimeo #3 (about windows, surprisingly applicable)

Why, oh WHY, do those #?@! nutheads use vi? #

Another zen-of-vim style article.

• Always exit back to normal mode.

• Use . to repeat the last editing command.

• % matches the other parenthesis, sure. But what if you’re not on a one? It will go forward until it finds a parenthesis and then goes it is matching pair. It is nice combined with editing, like c or d.

• i, a — motions, but can be only used after c, d or v. i> is inner angle bracket block, e.g. di> delete inner angle bracket block. a is similar, but also deletes the parenthesis. This can be used with ', ", {, (, [, < or B (for block), t (for tag), w (for word).

  • Similarly, s — only after c d v. E.g dst — delete surrounding tag, ds> — delete surrounding angle brackets, etc.

  • So, i inner  +  s surrounding  =  a.

• zz  zt  zb — scroll current line to the center / top / bottom.

• > — intend region selected by next motion, e.g. >aB intend current block.

• ]p — paste and auto intend.

Spacemacs #

Org mode #

Doom emacs #