Marginally Useful VIM Tricks

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Marginally Useful VIM Tricks

• COS Club Enrichment Series
• Jason OKane
• October 31, 2000

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Premise and Purpose

• The premise
• The text editor is a program we use so frequently
  that it is worthwhile to invest effort in getting
  the environment just right.
• The purpose
• To provide an introduction to what VIM can to do
  and to stimulate further exploration.

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A Confession
Without any customizations, I find VI and VIM to
be nearly unbearable.
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Customizing VIM

• Create a file in your home directory called
  .vimrc
• Put commands in it.

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From jokanes .vimrc
version 4.0 set bs2 set ruler set incsearch set
showmatch set ai set laststatus2 set
shiftwidth2 set tabstop2 set visualbell set
ignorecase cab W w cab Q q cab E e cab Sp sp cab
SP sp cab Wq wq iab i include iab d define
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Cool Settings

• syntax on
• activates syntax highlighting
• incsearch
• shows next match so far
• showmatch
• matches parens, brackets, etc. (vital for LISP)
• ignorecase
• case-insensitive searches

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More Cool Settings

• visualbell
• switches from annoying bell to soothing flash
• bs2
• allows liberal use of backspace
• Use help option-summary for a complete list of
  settings

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Abbreviations

• Command Abbreviations
• cab W w
• cab Q q
• Insert Mode Abbreviations
• iab d define
• iab i include

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Mappings

• Shift Key? Humbug!
• map
• map w wltC-Mgt
• map q qltC-Mgt

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.viminfo

• VIM can store commands, buffer contents, search
  patterns, etc. between editing sessions.
• set viminfo'1,f0,50,/50,n/vim/viminfo

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Working with Multiple Files

• sp ltfilenamegt
• opens another file
• sp
• opens another window with the current file
• CTRL-W ltdirectiongt
• switches to another open file
• Q
• closes the current file

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Exceptionally Nerdy Scripts

• Spelling Checker
• 2-keystroke Make
• File Skeleton System

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Spelling Checker

• /vim/spell.vim lists all English words
• command line spell used to create list of words
  to show in red

fu! Spell() w!spell0.tmp !spell lt spell0.tmp
gt spell1.tmp !sed -e"s//syntax keyword
ErrorMsg /" lt spell1.tmp gt spell2.tmp !echo
syntax clear gt spell3.tmp !cat spell2.tmp gtgt
spell3.tmp syntax on so spell3.tmp so
/vim/spell.vim !rm spell0.tmp spell1.tmp
spell2.tmp spell3.tmp endf
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2-Keystroke Make

• Executes a make the current directory.
• Shows the results (read error messages) in a
  split window

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2-Keystroke Make
fu! Make() pe mrn "make-results" "
Create a buffer to hold the make results, if
needed. " Assume that if there's a
make-results buffer, it's the current one "
This is reasonable since the mapping below moves
up 99 windows before " calling this make
function. pe if(maincurbuf-gtName() ne mrn)
VIMDoCommand("new") VIMDoCommand("e
mrn") pe if(maincurbuf-gtName() ne mrn)
VIMDoCommand("e mrn") " Empty out the
buffer pe maincurbuf-gtDelete(1,
maincurbuf-gtCount) " Execute make "
The zero is needed in order to read into an empty
buffer. 0r!make " Allow users to close the
window without saving the results set
nomodified endf map m ltC-Wgt99kcall
Make()ltC-MgtltC-MgtltC-Wgtj
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File Skeleton System

• Reads in a skeleton when a new file is created.
• New file types can be added simply by creating
  new files in the skeleton directory.

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File Skeleton System
pe HOME "/home/users9/jokane" pe SKEL
"HOME/vim/skel" fu! ReadSkel() pe fname
maincurbuf-gtName() pe (ext) (fname
/\.(a-z)/) pe VIMMsg("yo SKEL/ext")
pe if(-e "SKEL/ext") VIMDoCommand("r
SKEL/ext") pe maincurbuf-gtDelete(1) end
f au! au BufNewFile call ReadSkel()
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What was that again?

• If you remembered all of that, seek professional
  help.
• If not, find these slides and code at

http//www.css.tayloru.edu/jokane/vim