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Interactive Vim tutorial

openvim.com

11–20 of 230 posts

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#11

I started going through it, and unfortunately it takes control away from you way too often. I want to be able to toy around with the concepts after I learn them. I'd still recommend `vimtutor`.

+1 for vimtutor. It's not really in dire need of replacement imo!

Vimtutor is great. For anyone who is vim shy but wants to learn I'd highly recommend setting a reminder every, oh, month maybe to just fire up vimtutor and go through it until you get bored or whatever. It's amazing how fast you'll pick it up.

The only real shortcoming of vimtutor is that it cuts off before taking really advanced topics like buffers and windows.

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#12
post #4

Looking at the TOC, its missing cut/copy and paste, which is pretty important for any text editor

It's true, but since vim is a bit old, copy/pasting can be a bit awkward due to having an internal clipboard with the buffer and not using the system's clipboard.

I wouldn't put that in a beginner tutorial (at least the system clipboard copying/pasting).

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for vimtutor. It's not really in dire need of replacement imo!

Vimtutor is great. For anyone who is vim shy but wants to learn I'd highly recommend setting a reminder every, oh, month maybe to just fire up vimtutor and go through it until you get bored or whatever. It's amazing how fast you'll pick it up. The only real shortcoming of vimtutor is that it cuts off before taking really advanced topics like buffers and windows.

Definitely. Beyond vimtutor, I've found Practical Vim to be a fantastic book. I strongly recommend that book once someone has the basics of vim down.

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#14

I started going through it, and unfortunately it takes control away from you way too often. I want to be able to toy around with the concepts after I learn them. I'd still recommend `vimtutor`.

Exactly, often changes happen so quickly that you cannot really tell what happened. You need to try it a few times to get used to the concept.

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#15
post #4

Looking at the TOC, its missing cut/copy and paste, which is pretty important for any text editor

It's true, but since vim is a bit old, copy/pasting can be a bit awkward due to having an internal clipboard with the buffer and not using the system's clipboard. I wouldn't put that in a beginner tutorial (at least the system clipboard copying/pasting).

Vim has system clipboard support with the `+` and `*` registers.

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#17
post #7

It would be amazing to be able to play with the commands in addition to pressing exactly the keys that the tutorial tells you to press. Get a demonstration, then try on your own. Or maybe even include a vim golf game as an exercise? E.g. get to some word in less than four key presses.

vim golf needs to be multiplayer

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#18

Is there something similar to this for emacs?

To expand on the answers, C-h t opens the built in tutorial, which is good. It only covers the basics of navigation, but that's what you need to know to start. The tutorial is interactive.

Since emacs changes its behavior depending on the mode, it would be impractical to do a more in depth tutorial, in my opinion, but I liked the Mastering Emacs ebook.

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true, but since vim is a bit old, copy/pasting can be a bit awkward due to having an internal clipboard with the buffer and not using the system's clipboard. I wouldn't put that in a beginner tutorial (at least the system clipboard copying/pasting).

Vim has system clipboard support with the `+` and `*` registers.

Or even better, setting "set clipboard=unnamed" in your vimrc, which just makes it to so vim's clipboad is the system clipboard.
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