How to learn Vim? Vimtutor!

Configure vim

For learning vim editor, you need:

vimtutor

It has seven lession and may take 25 ~ 30 minutes for finish the exercise in vim tutor.

Actually you may need nearly 2 hours for the first exercise, but it is worthy.

The cursor is moved using either the arrow keys or the hjkl keys.
- h (left)
- j (down)
- k (up)
- l (right)
To start Vim from the shell prompt type:
1
vim filename
To exit Vim:
type: <ESC> :q! <ENTER> to trash all changes.
type: <ESC> :wq <ENTER> to save the changes.
To delete the character at the cursor type: x
To insert or append text type:
- i type inserted text <ESC> insert before the cursor
- A type appended text <ESC> append after the cursor

NOTE: Pressing <ESC> will place you in normal mode or will cancel an unwanted and partially completed command.

To delete:
- from the cursor up to the next word, type: dw
  
  dw means cut from here to next word
- from the cursor to the end of the word, type: de
  
  de means cut from here to the end of the current word
- from the cursor to the beginning of a line, type: d0
- from the cursor to the **end **of a line, type: d$
- the whole line, type: dd
To move the cursor:
- w, e, 0, $
these four motion preformance as “delete” described above.
To repeat a motion prepend it with a number: number motion
The format for a change command is: operator [number] motion

operator - is what to do, such as d for delete
[number] - is an optional count to repeat the motion
motion - moves over the text to operate on, such as w (word), $ (to the end of line), etc.
To undo:
- a previous actions, type: u (lowercase u)
- all the changes on a line, type: U (capital U)
- the undo’s, type: CTRL-R

To put back text that has just been deleted, type p .

This puts the deleted text after the cursor.

If a line was deleted it will go on the line below the cursor.
To replace the character under the cursor, type r and then the character you want to have there.
The change operator allows you to change from the cursor to where the motion takes you.
- ce to change from the cursor to the end of the word
- c$ to change to the end of the line.
The format for change:
- c [number] motion

To show location in the file, type CTRL-G.
- G moves to the end of the file.
- #G moves to the # line.
  
  # is a number of the target line
- gg moves to the first line of the file.
To search forward a phrase, type /phrase.
To search backward a phrase, type ?phrase.
- n for find next in same direction.
- N for find next in opposite direction.
- CTRL-O takes back to older positions.
- CTRL-I takes to newer positions.
To goes to the (), [], {} matched, type %.
To substitute the phrase, type :s/old/new.

For all : commands must be finished by hitting <ENTER>
- for all substitute on a line, type :s/old/new/g
- for all substitute between two line, type :#,#s/old/new/g
  
  #, # means two line numbers, maybe need CTRL-G to confirm them.
- for all substitute in file, type :%S/old/new/g
- for ask for confirmation eachtime add ‘c’ :%s/old/new

To **open **(new) a line and start insert mode:
- Type o to open Below the cursor
- Type O to open Above the cursor
Combine locate and insert motion:
- using w and i, you can move cursor to the first of word and insert before it.
- using e and a, you can move cursor to the end of word and insert (or append) after it.
To yank (copy) and puts (paste)
- Type y and p.
- you can compose them with other motion, like yw can copy one word.
To enter replace mode, type R and you can directly cover the previous text by type in new text.
To set option, using :set <option>
- ic or ignorecase, it ignore upper/lower case when searching.
- is or incsearch, it show partial matches for a search phrases.
- hls or hlsearch , it highlight all matching phrases.
To unset option, just prepend “no”, like :set noic

To Get help, type:help
- Jump between two windows using CTRL-W CTRL-W
- Quit by :q
To Configure Vim, you need to create a .vimrc file
- The example vimrc file: $VIMRUNTIME/vimrc_example.vim
When typing a : command, press CTRL-D to see possible completions.
- Press <TAB> to use one completion.