The document provides an overview of the Vim text editor, describing its modes including normal, insert, visual and ex modes. It explains various motions, text objects, and commands that can be used to edit and navigate text efficiently in Vim. The document also discusses features like windows, registers, macros, plugins and customizing Vim through vimrc configuration.

1. Mission Vim-Possible
by Sam Gottfried

2. History of Vim
"In the beginning, there was ed. And ed begat
ex; and ex begat vi; and vi begat vim."

3. What is Vim?
● Vim is a highly customizable, highly efficient
text editor
● Vim has several modes
○ Normal
○ Insert
○ Visual
○ Ex mode

4. Starting Up Vim
$ vim -> starts Vim
$ vim file.txt -> Starts Vim and opens file.txt
$ vim . -> Starts vim and opens to the current
directory
$ mvim . -> Starts Macvim in the current
directory

5. Normal Mode
Normal Mode is the default mode in Vim.
You should spend most of your time in normal
mode.

6. How to Get Around
h -> move left
j -> move down
k -> move up
l -> move right
<C-f> Move a page down
<C-b> Move a page up
gg -> move to the top of a file
G -> move to the bottom of a file

7. Motions
words vs WORDS
def foo(a,b)
word: [def][foo][(][a][,][b][)]
WORD: [def][foo(a,b)]
w -> next word e -> end of word
W -> next WORD E -> end of WORD
b-> beginning of current word
B -> beginning of current WORD

8. More Motions
f -> find a character
F -> find a character (reverse)
t -> go to just before a character
T -> go to just after a character
(reverse)
; -> next match (for f/F/t/T)
, -> previous match (for f/F/t/T)

9. More Motions
/ -> search forward
? -> search backwards
n -> next match (current direction)
N -> previous match (current direction)
* -> search for word under the cursor
# -> search backwards for word under the
cursor

10. Linewise Motions
0 -> go to beginning of a line
^ -> first non-whitespace character of a line
$ -> end of line

11. Operator
y -> yank
d -> delete
c -> change
p -> paste (after)
P -> paste (before)
Operator + motion = action
dw -> delete to the next word

12. Text Objects
a = a/an
i = inside
aw -> a word
aW -> a WORD
as -> a sentence
ap -> a paragraph

13. More Text Objects
a( -> a pair of parenthesis
a{ -> a pair of {braces}
a[ -> a pair of [brackets]
a< -> a pair of <angle brackets>
at -> a pair of XML tags

14. More Text Objects
a" -> a pair of "quotes"
a' -> a pair of 'quotes'
Examples:
da" -> delete a pair of quotes
ci" -> change everything between the quotes
yap -> yank a paragraph

15. Line-wise operations
dd -> delete a line
cc -> change a line
yy -> yank a line (copy)
>> -> shift right
<< -> shift left
== -> auto indent

16. Counts
Most motions take a count
3w -> move ahead 3 words
5s -> move ahead 3 sentences
These can be combined with actions
3dw -> delete a word 3 times (or d3w)
5dd -> delete 5 lines
2yy -> yank 2 lines

17. Undo/Redo
Act, Repeat, Reverse
. -> repeat a change
u -> undo a change
- Chunk your Undos
- Compose repeatable changes
- Don't count if you can repeat

18. Insert Mode
Entering Insert Mode
i -> insert to the left of the cursor
a -> insert to the right of the cursor (append)
c -> change (usually combined with a motion)
I -> Insert at the beginning of the current line
A -> Append to the end of the current line
cc -> change the current line

19. Insert Mode Commands
<C-w> -> delete back one world
<C-u> -> delete back to start of line
<C-r>{register} -> paste from register
Getting Out of Insert Mode
<Esc> or <C-[>

20. Visual Mode
v -> character-wise Visual mode
V -> line-wise Visual mode
<C-v> -> block-wise Visual mode
gv -> re-selects last visual selection
You can switch between these without going
into normal mode

21. Ex mode
: -> enter Ex command
Q -> enter Ex mode (:visual to get out)
:[range]d[elete] [x] ->
deletes specified lines into register x
:[range]y[ank] [x] ->
yanks specified lines into register x
:[line]put [x] ->
puts the text from register x after [line]

22. More Ex mode commands
:[range]copy [address] ->
Copy the lines in [range] to below the line given by
[address]
:[range]m[ove] [address] ->
Move the lines in [range] to below the line given by
[address]
:[range]join -> Join the specified lines
:[range]normal {commands} -> run normal mode
{commands} on each line in [range]

23. More Ex mode commands
:[range] substitute/{pattern}/{string}
-> replace occurences of {pattern} with {string}
on each specified line
:[range] g[lobal]/{pattern}/[command] i.e :g/re/p
-> run [command] on every line that matches {pattern}
:[range]v[global]/{pattern}/[command]
-> run [command] on every line that does NOT match
{pattern}

24. Ex Mode Examples
:5 -> go to line 5
:5p -> print line 5
:$ -> go to last line
:2,5p -> print lines 2-5
:% -> the whole document
:. -> the current line
:2,5t. -> copy lines 2 to 5 to below the current
line
:7,8m3 -> move lines 7-8 to below line 3

25. Opening Files
:e <file> -> open <file>
:w <file> -> write <file>
:saveas <file> -> write to (and open) <file>
:q -> quit current window
:qa -> quit all windows
:wq -> write then quit
:x -> write and quit (if changes have been
made)

26. Windows
<C-w>s or :sp -> Split the current window
horizontally
<C-w>v or :vs -> Split the current window
vertically
Both :sp and :vs take an optional file name

27. More Window Commands
<C-w>c or :close -> close the active window
<C-w>o or :only -> close all other windows
<C-w>= -> equalize the width and height of all windows
<C-w>> or :resize +n -> increase size of window to the right
<C-w>< or :resize -n -> increase size of window to the left

28. Registers
Use registers with yanks and deletes
Increase your clipboard size to 27!
"[register][count]action text object
example:
"ayiw => Yank current word into register a
"ap => Paste from register a

29. Macros
Record a sequence of changes and then play
them back
q{register} -> record a macro into a register
qa -> start recording a macro into register a
Press q again to stop the recording
@{register} -> playback the macro in {register}

30. Macro Tips
Macros can be done in series
Macros can also be done in parallel
Macros are useful with counts (Dot command
doesn't accept counts)

31. Searching
/ -> search
? -> search (backwards)
Flags
c -> case insensitive
v -> Perl (or Ruby) style regex ("Very magic mode")
V -> Literal Search or "Very No Magic" mode
<word> -> explicit word boundaries (in very magic mode)
zsmatchze -> match boundaries (in very magic mode)

32. Searching
? needs to be escaped when searching
backwards
needs to be escaped all the time (even in Very
Nomagic mode)
// -> Your last search term
This can be used as a text object or in a
substitute command

33. Substitution
:[range]s[ubstitute]/{pattern}/{string}/{flags}
examples
:%s/hello/hi/g -> replaces all occurrences of the
word "hello" with the word "hi"
:%s/hello/hi/gc -> does the same thing but
prompts at each map

34. Plugins
Tim Pope's Pathogen - Plugin Manager
github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen
Vim-Rails
github.com/tpope/vim-rails
Ruby-Test
github.com/janx/vim-rubytest

35. More Plugins
NERDTree -> File tree explorer
github.com/scrooloose/nerdtree
Fugitive -> Git from within Vim
github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive
Greplace -> Project search and replace
github.com/skwp/greplace.vim

36. More Plugins
Ack.vim -> Search project with Ack
github.com/mileszs/ack.vim
Ultisnips -> Textmate-like snippets
github.com/SirVer/ultisnips
Ctrlp -> Fuzzy find files
github.com/kien/ctrlp.vim

37. More Plugins
Supertab -> Easier autocomplete
github.com/ervandew/supertab

38. Vimrc
Configuration for Vim

39. Resources
:vimtutor
:help <topic>
Practical Vim (from pragmatic bookshelf)
Vimcasts (http://vimcasts.org)