11–20 of 62 posts
> inoremap jj A mapping I've been using for years. I'm pretty sure between this and Ctrl-c, I never hit escape in Vim anymore.
When you have already remapped Caps-Lock as an additional control, why not just use Ctrl-[ instead of the 'jj' remapping for Escape. It saves a bit of Vim configuration, and also works in Bash vi mode.
"A commenter mentioned using Dropbox for synchronization as well, which seems attractive, but I’m not sure how clean that would be on headless Linux servers." Dropbox does work pretty nicely on headless Linux servers, you just have a daemon running constantly with none of the GUI extensions. I use it for keeping some code in check. Nice list of things to try, I don't use vim but I've been putting off doing 3 of them…
When you have already remapped Caps-Lock as an additional control, why not just use Ctrl-[ instead of the 'jj' remapping for Escape. It saves a bit of Vim configuration, and also works in Bash vi mode.
I just remapped Caps Lock as Escape. I use Escape a lot between tmux with vim modes, bash, and vim itself. I do this in OSX and for the linux console and X11.
"A commenter mentioned using Dropbox for synchronization as well, which seems attractive, but I’m not sure how clean that would be on headless Linux servers." Dropbox does work pretty nicely on headless Linux servers, you just have a daemon running constantly with none of the GUI extensions. I use it for keeping some code in check. Nice list of things to try, I don't use vim but I've been putting off doing 3 of them…
For some (entirely irrational, I'm sure) reason, the idea of constant and automatic deployment of my dotfiles across all my boxes gives me the shivers. I like that extra bit of control I get from doing it with a git repo.
I'm a full-time Vim user who has never taken to `bindkey -v`. The reason is simple: I'm using insert mode 99% of the time, so using vi keybindings just makes me have to hit an extra key. However, it is useful some of the time. Since viins is pretty useless by default, you can spice it up by setting custom bindings (e.g. copy emacs') and get the best of both worlds. Furthermore, this may be helpful: http://www.bewater…
`bindkey -v` puts you in insert mode by default (there's a way to make it not do that, but the default is insert first). So there's not really an extra key, you get both benefits :).
> inoremap jj A mapping I've been using for years. I'm pretty sure between this and Ctrl-c, I never hit escape in Vim anymore.
I've always used Ctrl-[. It's there in all Vim installs, doesn't conflict with anything else that I know of, and is a quick, no-glance pinky shift for both hands (assuming you remap your Capslock to Control). Edit: Ninja'd by top-level comment!
Don't remap "jj" to escape. Remap "jk" instead. All of the same benefits, plus one more - if you get into the habit of nervously hitting "jk" all the time, as most people do in vim, using "jk" means your cursos stays in place. On the other hand, "jj" means your cursor will move.
So here's tip 9:
Use a nice Linux or similar machine with a pleasant to use clicky keyboard and a mouse which allows text highlight and middle click paste.