Vimperator: a Vim-like Firefox • Hacker News Board

sirn wrote: post #23

twistedanimator wrote: post #6

I used to be a user of pentadactyl, but never liked how it changed the entire look of the browser. Just last a couple of days ago, I found VimFx which is exactly what I always wanted. It's also open source at https://github.com/akhodakivskiy/VimFx

I'm the other way around: I tried switching from Vimperator to VimFx for a week, but couldn't really make myself compatible with it. I'm too used to browsing with toolbars=none[1] and browse almost exclusively via Vimperator command line. I found VimFx still not enough to be used with everything hidden. Too bad that Vimperator will most likely stop working once Mozilla deprecate XUL addons in Firefox 57[2]. [1]: http…

I switched to VimFx so I could get electrolysis working. I had to tweak scrolling speed quite drastically and and there are some behavioural differences which means I have to unlearn some muscle memory. However, with the classic theme restorer addon the UI is compressed enough that it doesn't bother me much and I can use the keyboard for almost everything.

I still wish I could have the command line back though. Annoyingly Firefox actually includes some sort of command line thing when I press :, but it seems to be only for web developers. I'd be happy if Mozilla provided a way to extend that so that it could be used for actual browsing...

Re: Vimperator: a Vim-like Firefox

#34

Post by carldotac » Sun, Jan 15, 2017, 6:51 PM UTC

ams6110 wrote: post #21

Anyone know of something similar with emacs-style key bindings?

I have found KeySnail[0] to fit my needs, which basically amount to scrolling, copy/paste, and keyboard hints for links.

[0]: https://github.com/mooz/keysnail

Re: Vimperator: a Vim-like Firefox

#35

Post by dblohm7 » Sun, Jan 15, 2017, 7:01 PM UTC

baotiao wrote: post #2

I have used vimperator for about 6 years, this is only reason that I still use firefox. It's really amazing.

Out of curiosity, why would you switch if it weren't for vimperator?

Re: Vimperator: a Vim-like Firefox

#36

Post by autocorr » Sun, Jan 15, 2017, 7:10 PM UTC

I remember using the original keyboard productivity extension for Firefox, "hit-a-hint"[1] back in Firefox 1 & 2. Since discovering vimperator after, it has been an essential extension on par with an ad blocker. However, I found it consistently broke on new releases of Firefox and could take months to fix. Pentadactyl wasn't any better in this regard. For example, the current extension page says it only works up to Firefox 38! I eventually switched to the less powerful extension VimFX[2] that can run on newer versions of Firefox. It has more than 90% of what you use in vimperator: movement, hints, and tab management. And really, things like the vimperator extension bar were made for a time before the awesome bar, which can now do things like completions, searching with keywords, and switching focus to other bookmarks or tabs. It will be sad to see it go when Firefox finally deprecates XUL based extensions, it's like a piece of history!

[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hit-a-hint/ [2] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vimfx/?src=se...

Re: Vimperator: a Vim-like Firefox

#37

Post by oib » Sun, Jan 15, 2017, 7:12 PM UTC

pmoriarty wrote: post #13

jzelinskie wrote: post #4

Who develops vimperator these days? Some of their primary maintainers moved onto a separate project called Pentadactyl[0] a few years ago. [0]: http://5digits.org/pentadactyl/

Pentadactyl isn't the successor to Vimperator, it's just a similar extension with a different feature set and some former Vimperator developers working on it. From what I understand, Vimperator continued to be developed after Pentadactyl was born. Long ago I compared the two and decided to use Pentadactyl because it seemed to be more powerful, but I'm not sure how they compare these days. A much bigger problem is tha…

Signed builds are available here: https://github.com/willsALMANJ/pentadactyl-signed/releases

It works for me on Firefox 50.1.0

But the move away from XUL is indeed worrisome for plugins like these... I kinda hope someone will just build it into the servo project and make that into a usable minimal browser.

Re: Vimperator: a Vim-like Firefox

#38

Post by pmoriarty » Sun, Jan 15, 2017, 7:14 PM UTC

oib wrote: post #37

pmoriarty wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pentadactyl isn't the successor to Vimperator, it's just a similar extension with a different feature set and some former Vimperator developers working on it. From what I understand, Vimperator continued to be developed after Pentadactyl was born. Long ago I compared the two and decided to use Pentadactyl because it seemed to be more powerful, but I'm not sure how they compare these days. A much bigger problem is tha…

Signed builds are available here: https://github.com/willsALMANJ/pentadactyl-signed/releases It works for me on Firefox 50.1.0 But the move away from XUL is indeed worrisome for plugins like these... I kinda hope someone will just build it into the servo project and make that into a usable minimal browser.

Why aren't these on addons.mozzila.org or on the official Pentadactyl site?

I'm a little wary of installing addons from some random github repo.

Re: Vimperator: a Vim-like Firefox

#39

Post by exDM69 » Sun, Jan 15, 2017, 7:17 PM UTC

Dangeranger wrote: post #20

Chrome has Vimium for this, it's good to know there is an analogue for Firefox. I love using Vim bindings while browsing. https://github.com/philc/vimium

Vimium just doesn't work as well as Vimperator, which is why I use Firefox and not Chromium for my primary browser.

That said, Vimperator is far from perfect and sometimes buggy and I don't need all the features (like macros).

Re: Vimperator: a Vim-like Firefox

#40

Post by li4ick » Sun, Jan 15, 2017, 7:18 PM UTC

The one and only reason that stops me from using Vimperator is the smooth scrolling feature, which is built into Vimium. Does anybody know how to get the same behaviour into Vimperator?