Interactive Vim tutorial • Hacker News Board

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#21

Post by elliotec » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 2:23 PM UTC

Here’s how I “learned” vim and many of the more proficient vimmers I know did too: go through vimtutor (type “vimtutor” on your command line), then write YOUR OWN .vimrc - in vim. Then use it and learn by doing.

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#22

Post by bananicorn » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 2:26 PM UTC

Now I wonder if there's a js library which makes a textfield behave like VIM...

Guess I'll need to look at the source here later on to find out.

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#23

Post by asicsp » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 2:27 PM UTC

jdhawk wrote: post #4

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

they are sprinkled around

cut: x,d,c,s

copy: y

paste: p

different variations for different use cases, can be combined with movement commands, can be repeated, etc

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#24

Post by u801e » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 2:29 PM UTC

dutchieinfrance wrote: post #20

Ascetik wrote: post #8

So... many... commands.

So... much... power.

With great power comes great editability.

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#25

Post by localhost » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 2:30 PM UTC

Obligatory link to VimGolf, a great way to learn by doing.

https://vimgolf.com/

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#26

Post by happy-go-lucky » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 2:31 PM UTC

andkenneth wrote: post #2

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`.

vimtutor is especially useful for beginners. Very interactive. Makes you want to learn more once you're done with it.

I remember reading this beautiful essay Seven habits of effective text editing by Bram Moolenaar, the main author of Vim.

http://www.moolenaar.net/habits.html

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#27

Post by rstefanic » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 2:31 PM UTC

Xophmeister wrote: post #15

rstefanic wrote: post #12

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.

Right. But what I was saying is that, I wouldn't throw that into a beginner's tutorial right away.

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#28

Post by saamm » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 2:31 PM UTC

bananicorn wrote: post #22

Now I wonder if there's a js library which makes a textfield behave like VIM... Guess I'll need to look at the source here later on to find out.

Closest thing I can think of is CodeMirror: https://codemirror.net/demo/vim.html

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#29

Post by woodrowbarlow » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 2:32 PM UTC

bananicorn wrote: post #22

Now I wonder if there's a js library which makes a textfield behave like VIM... Guess I'll need to look at the source here later on to find out.

since this site doesn't let you experiment, i'd guess they didn't actually emulate vim. it's little more than a slide deck triggered by specific keypresses.

Re: Interactive Vim tutorial

#30

Post by travmatt » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 2:33 PM UTC

doktrin wrote: post #3

andkenneth wrote: post #2

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`.

'vim adventures' also seems fun, but it's not quite the same (for me) without the context of actually navigating a text document.

I picked up vim very well from vim adventures. Once I finished the game those key movements were in my muscle memory, and that’s all that was really needed to get me up and running.