learning vi & vim

Name: learning vi & vim
Rating: 4.7 (13 reviews)

from beginner to master

Created byErik Lievaart

Last updated 7/2022

English

What you'll learn

editing documents in vi & vim
configuring vim to your tastes
running external programs from vim
installing plugins
powerful meta editing tools

Course content

3 sections • 17 lectures • 5h 26m total length

Theory: Introducing Vi(m)37:21
This is an introduction video.
After watching this video you will be able to differentiate between various vi clones.
I will also go over the course design.
You will understand the course structure and how to make best use of your time.
Next I will discuss the contents of the course, present and future.
Lastly I will give a demo to give an idea of the capabilities of vim in the broad sense.
Lab1: the absolute minimum you need to know7:44
This video discusses a very minimal set of features.
After watching this video, you should be able to edit a file in vi or vim.
Lab2: basic editing and moving around32:06
This video discusses basic commands for editing and moving around documents.
Watching this video will make you more efficient at editing documents.
You will also be capable of navigating to the section of a document of your choice quickly.
Lab3: files, buffers and splits32:05
This video will discuss files, buffers and splits.
After watching this video you will be able to open and switch between multiple text files in vim.
You will be able to open a split and manipulate and navigate between the individual panes.
Lastly, I will discuss the vim built in help and some tricks on how to look things up in the help.
Lab4: ex-mode and configuring vim in the vimrc33:53
In this video I will discuss how the ex-command line works.
We will look at some tricks that make using the ex-command line more convenient.
I will discuss how options work in vim. These configure the behavior of the editor.
You will learn the general syntax and how to look up the options available.
I will also give some common examples of options which you might want to set.
You will learn how to set the default set of options when you start vim, using the vimrc.
Lastly, this video will show how ranges can specify a section of a document for an ex-command.
This will be illustrated using some basic ex-commands used for basic editing.
Most of these ex-commands mirror the basic editing commands we saw in lab2.
Lab5: motions and text objects27:03
This video teaches motions and text objects.
You will learn how to use motions to quickly navigate within a single line.
Once I have discussed motions, I will show how motions can be combined with commands.
This will enable you to make fine grained edits to a document.
Lastly, I will discuss the deeper implications this has for how vim's model works.

Theory: how to best learn vim7:06
This video is me reflecting on my learning process. It contains tips for learning and practicing vim more effectively.
Lab6: substitute - search and replace18:30
This video discusses search and replace in vim.
You will learn how to search for text, how to create advanced search patterns and how to substitute matches with the pattern automatically.
Lab7: Visual mode14:26
This lab is on visual mode. It will teach how to select, highlight and manipulate chunks of text in visual mode.
Lab8: shell integration19:01
This video covers shell integration.
It is concerned with both launching vim from the shell and with using the shell from within vim.
You will learn Vim's most important startup flags, how to use Vim's embedded terminal and how to execute shell commands without leaving Vim. I will demonstrate how to send a chunk of the open buffer to the shell command, how to capture output back into the document and why this functionality matters.
Lab9: netrw - Vims integrated filebrowser4:47
In this video we will look at netrw - Vim's built-in filebrowser.
You will learn how to open files without leaving Vim and without losing your context.
Lab10: advanced tricks for loading and manipulating files14:33
In this video, you will learn how to open files using wildcard expressions (partial file names / file paths).
You will also learn advanced tricks, for making edits on multiple lines or even files simultaneously.
Lab11: Registers and Macros9:25
In this video, you will learn which registers Vim auto fills by default and how to store chunks of text in user registers.
We will build upon this with macros, learning various ways to create repeatable sequences of events stored in registers.
Lab 12: Custom Keymappings31:18
This video will teach you how to bind shortcuts to any action you want.
Lab 13: Plugins7:43
This lab will introduce Vim's plugin mechanism.
After this video, you will understand what kind of things plugins can do and how to install them in various ways.
The lab is not intended as an in depth guide for everything regarding plugins.
The intent is just to create awareness and get you up and running quickly.

Lab A: compiling in vim with :make and quickfix15:24
After watching this video, you will be able to use external compiler / linters from vim and browse any resulting errors using the quickfix menu.
Lab B: Vim as IDE with LSP13:44
In this lab, you will learn how to turn Vim into an IDE using a language server.
The video discusses general concepts and demonstrates them, using the "conquer of completion" plugin.

Requirements

basic computer skills

Description

In this course I will teach how to work with both vi and vim.

The course is aimed at teaching a thorough understanding of vim's conceptual model,

rather than teaching just a list of isolated vim key mappings.

It also provides extensive coverage of the vim help function, to allow you to teach yourself.

Content wise, this course will cover basic editing to advanced meta editing functionality.

I will also cover topics such as

* mapping keybindings

* configuring vim

* installing plugins

* interacting with external programs / the shell

The first few lessons will get you up to speed quickly, later videos will discuss more advanced topics.

The first part of the course builds up your foundation.

The videos in the second part are independent topics that you can pick and choose, with the foundations as prerequisite knowledge.

This allows you to watch only the videos you are interested in (in part 2).

Apart from the foundations, later videos will be added incrementally.

Only basic computer skills are required for this course.

You have to be able to open a terminal and go to a directory and install packages yourself (if necessary).

Installation of vim is not currently covered in the course, but is trivial on most operating systems.

Who this course is for:

anyone who wants to be able to edit text documents

learning vi & vim

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction6 lectures • 2hr 50min

independent topics9 lectures • 2hr 7min

appendixes2 lectures • 29min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: