Book Image

Mastering Vim

By : Ruslan Osipov
Book Image

Mastering Vim

By: Ruslan Osipov

Overview of this book

Vim is a ubiquitous text editor that can be used for all programming languages. It has an extensive plugin system and integrates with many tools. Vim offers an extensible and customizable development environment for programmers, making it one of the most popular text editors in the world. Mastering Vim begins with explaining how the Vim editor will help you build applications efficiently. With the fundamentals of Vim, you will be taken through the Vim philosophy. As you make your way through the chapters, you will learn about advanced movement, text operations, and how Vim can be used as a Python (or any other language for that matter) IDE. The book will then cover essential tasks, such as refactoring, debugging, building, testing, and working with a version control system, as well as plugin configuration and management. In the concluding chapters, you will be introduced to additional mindset guidelines, learn to personalize your Vim experience, and go above and beyond with Vimscript. By the end of this book, you will be sufficiently confident to make Vim (or its fork, Neovim) your first choice when writing applications in Python and other programming languages.

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Table of Contents (12 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
Get in touch
Free Chapter
1
Getting Started
Getting Started
Technical requirements
Let’s start a conversation (about modal interfaces)
Installation
Vanilla Vim vs gVim
Configuring Vim with your .vimrc
Common operations (or how to exit Vim)
Moving around: talk to your editor
Making simple edits in insert mode
Persistent undo and repeat
Read the Vim manual using :help
Summary
2
Advanced Editing and Navigation
Advanced Editing and Navigation
Technical requirements
Installing plugins
Organizing workspace
Navigating file trees
Navigating text
Copying and pasting with registers
Summary
3
Follow the Leader - Plugin Management
Follow the Leader - Plugin Management
Technical requirements
Managing plugins
Deeper dive into modes
Remapping commands
The leader key
Configuring plugins
Summary
4
Understanding the Text
Understanding the Text
Technical requirements
Code autocomplete
Navigating the code base with tags
Undo tree and Gundo
Summary
5
Build, Test, and Execute
Build, Test, and Execute
Technical requirements
Working with version control
Resolving conflicts with vimdiff
tmux, screen, and Vim terminal mode
Building and testing
Summary
6
Refactoring Code with Regex and Macros
Refactoring Code with Regex and Macros
Technical requirements
Search or replace with regular expressions
Recording and playing macros
Using plugins to do the job
Summary
7
Making Vim Your Own
Making Vim Your Own
Technical requirements
Playing with the Vim UI
Keeping track of configuration files
Healthy Vim customization habits
Summary
8
Transcending the Mundane with Vimscript
Transcending the Mundane with Vimscript
Technical requirements
Why Vimscript?
How to execute Vimscript
Learning the syntax
A word about style guides
Let's build a plugin
Further reading
Summary
9
Neovim
Neovim
Technical requirements
Why make another Vim?
Installing and configuring Neovim
Oni
Neovim plugin highlights
Summary
10
Where to Go from Here
Where to Go from Here
Seven habits of effective text editing
Modal interfaces everywhere
Recommended reading and communities
Summary
11
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
Leave a review - let other readers know what you think

Technical requirements

Among other things, this chapter will cover working with version control. Git is the version control system of choice for this chapter; however, the lessons learned are applicable across different systems. A section is dedicated to a quick-and-dirty introduction but, if you want to get the most out of version control systems, you may want to read up on the version control system of your choice.

Throughout this chapter, we'll be making changes to our .vimrc file. You can make these changes as you go, or download them from GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Mastering-Vim/tree/master/Chapter05. Git installation and configuration instructions are also included in the repository.

Previous Section
End of Section 2
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