Hacking Vim A Cookbook to get the Most out of the Latest Vim Editor: a Cookbook to Get the Most Out of the Latest Vim Editor

Hacking Vim; Hacking Vim; Credits; About the Author; About the Reviewers; Preface; What This Book Covers; What You Need for This Book; Conventions; Reader Feedback; Customer Support; Downloading the Example Code for the Book; Errata; Questions; 1. Introduction; Vi, Vim, and Friends; vi; STEVIE; Elvis; Nvi; Vim; Vile; Compatibility; Vim is Charityware; Summary; 2. Personalizing Vim; Where are the Config Files?; vimrc; gvimrc; exrc; Adding a Menu; Work Area Personalization; Summary; 3. Better Navigation; ; Faster Navigation in a File; Navigating Long Lines; Search and You Will Find.;From personalizing Vim to productivity optimizations: Recipes to make life easier for experienced Vim users.

In Detail

Each chapter of this book deals with a different aspect, and provides recipes for easy-to-use hacks to customize and simplify your Vim experience. After an introduction covering the derivation of Vim and its relatives from the vi editor, the author explains basic changes that you can make to the appearance of the Vim editor. Further chapters cover improved navigation through files and buffers in Vim; speeding up your work with templates, auto-completion, folding, sessions, and registers; and formatting text and code, including using external formatting scripts. The final comprehensive chapter covers everything about using Vim scripts and scripting to extend functionality.

Vim stands for Vi IMproved and is the editor of choice for programmers looking for a highly configurable, stable, open-source, multi-platform text editor. It is included with almost every Linux distribution as the standard text editor, and can be used to work with source code from any language. A big advantage of using Vim is that it can be extensively customized; you can control the basic interface, define personalized key mappings, implement macros, and call external or user-defined scripts. Vim has its own scripting language that allows for plug-in like extensions to enable IDE behavior, syntax scripts and highlighting, color schemes, themes, and utility scripts that can add a wide range of features and functionality. Vim 7.0, for which this book is written, includes spell-checking, code completion, document tabs, current line and column highlighting, undo branches, and more.

This book contains hacks that cover everything from personalizing Vim according to the user's work cycle to optimizations that will boost the user's productivity. It does not cover the basic tasks of using the editor but instead focuses on making life easier for experienced Vim users. It is written for Vim 7.0 , the latest stable version.

Approach

This is a cookbook packed with ready-to-use hacks that give solutions for some of the commonest problems users of the Vim editor encounter during their daily use. Each recipe follows a systematic approach with a self-contained description of the task it covers, how to use it, and what you gain by using it. The reader can read any of the hacks in this book without having to read any of the other hacks, where necessary they include cross-references to other relevant hacks. The minimum version of Vim required for each hack is clearly indicated.

Who this book is for

It does not cover the basic tasks of using the editor but instead focuses on making life easier for more experienced Vim users.

In Detail Each chapter of this book deals with a different aspect, and provides recipes for easy-to-use hacks to customize and simplify your Vim experience. After an introduction covering the derivation of Vim and its relatives from the vi editor, the author explains basic changes that you can make to the appearance of the Vim editor. Further chapters cover improved navigation through files and buffers in Vim; speeding up your work with templates, auto-completion, folding, sessions, and registers; and formatting text and code, including using external formatting scripts. The final comprehensive chapter covers everything about using Vim scripts and scripting to extend functionality. Vim stands for Vi IMproved and is the editor of choice for programmers looking for a highly configurable, stable, open-source, multi-platform text editor. It is included with almost every Linux distribution as the standard text editor, and can be used to work with source code from any language. A big advantage of using Vim is that it can be extensively customized; you can control the basic interface, define personalized key mappings, implement macros, and call external or user-defined scripts. Vim has its own scripting language that allows for plug-in like extensions to enable IDE behavior, syntax scripts and highlighting, color schemes, themes, and utility scripts that can add a wide range of features and functionality. Vim 7.0, for which this book is written, includes spell-checking, code completion, document tabs, current line and column highlighting, undo branches, and more. This book contains hacks that cover everything from personalizing Vim according to the user's work cycle to optimizations that will boost the user's productivity. It does not cover the basic tasks of using the editor but instead focuses on making life easier for experienced Vim users. It is written for Vim 7.0 , the latest stable version.Approach This is a cookbook packed with ready-to-use hacks that give solutions for some of the commonest problems users of the Vim editor encounter during their daily use. Each recipe follows a systematic approach with a self-contained description of the task it covers, how to use it, and what you gain by using it. The reader can read any of the hacks in this book without having to read any of the other hacks, where necessary they include cross-references to other relevant hacks. The minimum version of Vim required for each hack is clearly indicated.Who this book is for It does not cover the basic tasks of using the editor but instead focuses on making life easier for more experienced Vim users Hacking Vim Hacking Vim Credits About the Author About the Reviewers Preface What This Book Covers What You Need for This Book Conventions Reader Feedback Customer Support Downloading the Example Code for the Book Errata Questions 1. Introduction Vi, Vim, and Friends vi STEVIE Elvis Nvi Vim Vile Compatibility Vim is Charityware Summary 2. Personalizing Vim Where are the Config Files? vimrc gvimrc exrc Adding a Menu Work Area Personalization Summary 3. Better Navigation Faster Navigation in a File Navigating Long Lines Search and You Will Find. X Marks the SpotSummary 4. Production Boosters Using Templates Easier Taglist Navigation Other Usages of Taglists Using Auto-Completion Using Sessions Satisfy your own Session Needs Registers and Undo Branching The Unnamed Register The Small Delete Register The Numbered Registers The Named Registers The Read-Only Registers The Selection and Drop Registers The Black Hole Register Search Pattern Register The Expression Register Navigation in vimdiff Summary 5. Advanced Formatting Formatting Text Autoindent Smartindent Cindent Indentexpr Indent Tidy Summary. 6. Vim Scripting Your First Syntax-Color File Syntax Regions Color Scheme and Syntax Coloring Using Scripts Script Types Installing Scripts Uninstalling Scripts Script Development Scripting Basics Types Variables Conditions Lists and Dictionaries Loops Creating Functions Script Structure Scripting Tips Remember the Documentation Using External Interpreters Vim Scripting in Perl Vim Scripting in Python Vim Scripting in Ruby Summary A. Vim Can Do Everything Vim Games B. Vim Configuration Alternatives Tips for Keeping your Vimrc Clean A Vimrc Setup System. Annotation Each chapter of this book deals with a different aspect, and provides recipes for easy-to-use hacks to customize and simplify your Vim experience. After an introduction covering the derivation of Vim and its relatives from the vi editor, the author explains basic changes that you can make to the appearance of the Vim editor. Further chapters cover improved navigation through files and buffers in Vim; speeding up your work with templates, auto-completion, folding, sessions, and registers; and formatting text and code, including using external formatting scripts. The final comprehensive chapter covers everything about using Vim scripts and scripting to extend functionality. Vim stands for Vi IMproved and is the editor of choice for programmers looking for a highly configurable, stable, open-source, multi-platform text editor. It is included with almost every Linux distribution as the standard text editor, and can be used to work with source code from any language. A big advantage of using Vim is that it can be extensively customized; you can control the basic interface, define personalized key mappings, implement macros, and call external or user-defined scripts. Vim has its own scripting language that allows for plug-in like extensions to enable IDE behavior, syntax scripts and highlighting, color schemes, themes, and utility scripts that can add a wide range of features and functionality. Vim 7.0, for which this book is written, includes spell-checking, code completion, document tabs, current line and column highlighting, undo branches, and more This book contains hacks that cover everything from personalizing Vim according to the user's work cycle to optimizations that will boost the user's productivity. It does not cover the basic tasks of using the editor but instead focuses on making life easier for experienced Vim users. It is written for Vim 7.0, the latest stable version. Anyone who has worked with Vim and wants to get more out of this legendary text editor can use the hacks from this book. It does not cover the basic tasks of using the editor but instead focuses on making life easier for more experienced Vim users