Vim: an epic terminal-based text editor

(This Blog post is part of a collaborative work between Me and Mustapha El Idrissi, Consult his devTo page for more information: https://dev.to/appsbymuss)

Introduction about Vim

Vim (short for Vi IMproved) is a highly configurable and efficient text editor that extends the functionality of the classic Unix-based Vi editor. Created by Bram Moolenaar, Vim is designed to maximize productivity in text editing through a combination of keyboard-driven commands and modes.

What are Buffers in vim ?

In Vim, a buffer is essentially an in-memory representation of a file. When you open a file in Vim, it is loaded into a buffer, allowing you to make changes to it.

Basics of Vim

To Edit a file (or Create one)

vim <file_name>

Saving and Quitting

• To save the modifications to a file: you simply press [:] then type w and press ENTER
• To save the mods. and quit the file: you do the same thing except it’s :wq
• To quit a file and discard the mods.: press [:] and type [q!] then ENTER

There are 4 Modes in Vim

NORMAL MODE: It is the default mode. It is mostly useful for navigating through a file, however there are some shortcuts that make modifications to the file even with this mode. For example:

• Pressing [0]: Places the cursor at the start of the current line.
• Pressing [$]: Places the cursor at the end of the current line.
• Pressing [u]: Undo’s the last change that was done to the “buffer”.
• Pressing [x]: Deletes one character (where the cursor is).
• Pressing [dd]: Deletes the current line (but it gets saved in the “paste buffer”, which means the contents can be “pasted”.
• Pressing [p]: Pastes whatever is copied (in the “paste buffer”)
• Pressing [gg]: Places the cursor at the first line in the file.
• Pressing [G]: Places the cursor at the last line in the file

INSERT MODE: This mode is activated by pressing [i]. It is used to insert new data to the document. Here are some examples of shortcuts:

• Pressing [a + Shift]: Places the cursor at the end of the current line and activates INSERT MODE.
• Pressing [i]: Activates INSERT MODE.

VISUAL MODE: This mode is useful to select specific subtext and apply modifications on it. It is activated by pressing [v]. Here are a few examples of shortcuts:

• Pressing [y]: The selected section of text will be copied (not cut) and get placed in the “paste buffer” (to be pasted somewhere)
• Pressing [:] then Typing [sort ui]: This will sort the selected lines alphabetically and ensure there are no duplicate lines.

COMMAND MODE: Accessed by pressing [:]. Used for entering commands such as saving files, quitting Vim, and searching.

examples:

• [:! <LINUX_COMMAND>] – Execute a command while in vim

File Operations

• [:q] – Close the current window/buffer.
• [:w] – Write changes to the current file.
• [:q!] – Close the current window/buffer and discard of the changes.
• [:wq] – Write changes to the current file and close the window.
• [:r <file_name>] – Copy the buffer of “file_name” and paste it in the current buffer.
• [:w <file_name>] – Copy and Write the current buffer to “file_name”

String Search

• [:%s/<regExpr>] – Search and highlight the first occurence of a string/pattern.
• [:%s/<regExpr>/String2/g] – Search and replace ALL the occurences of a string/pattern.

Buffers

Buffers can be extremely useful when you want to edit multiple files at the same time. Using COMMAND MODE, here are some useful tricks:

[:ls] – Lists all the buffers currently accessible. (the one active has a %a sign)
[:e <file_name>] – Load a file into a new buffer.
[:b <buffer_number>] – To switch to a buffer
[:enew] – To create an empty buffer (whose content that you can later on save to a file or to another buffer)
[:bn] – Switches to the next buffer in the list.
[:bp] – Switches to the previous buffer in the list.
[:bw <buffer_number>] – Saves changes to the buffer X.
[:bd <buffer_name>] – Deletes the buffer X.
[:bd! <buffer_name>] – Deletes the buffer X discarding of any changes.

Splitting the screen

Horizentally

[:sp[lit] <file_name>] – Splits the current file with “file_name” horizentally, This step can be done multiple times with multiple files.

Vertically

[:vsp[lit] <file_name>] – Splits the current file with “file_name” horizentally, This step can be done multiple times with multiple files.
[Ctrl + ww] – To switch between “splits”.

Advantages of a Terminal-based Text editor

• Vim is very light resources-wise, which makes it ideal to run on low-end machines.
• It is terminal-based which means it can be executed and used remotely without any trouble using something like SSH.
• The learning curve to master Vim is a bit steep but everyone can master the basics quite easily after a bit of practice.