Talk by Gavriel Rachael-Homann

Save the .vimrc from this repo in your home (~) directory

From your terminal, type the following command: vimtutor

vimtutor is an interactive vim tutorial. I swear by it as the best way of learning vim.

If you're already a proficient vim user and you're looking to improve your configuration, https://learnvimscriptthehardway.stevelosh.com is the best resource I've found.

:reg lists all of your registers (clipboards)

By default, all copy-paste commands work on the default register (the "" register)

You can select a different register when copy-pasting by prefacing the command with the register

The system clipboard is usually "*. To use this register, preface the command like this: "*<command>

yank is vim's "copy". The shortcut for yank is y. If you want to yank to the system clipboard, use "*y

paste is vim's "paste". The shortcut for paste is p. If you want to paste from the system clipboard, use "*p

I suggest you make these changes in your .vimrc so that they persist.

Make sure you have syntax on to enable syntax highlighting.

There are a number of default color schemes that come with vim, here are a few that I like:

1. slate
2. torte
3. desert

To set a color scheme use colo <yourscheme>

Ex: colo slate

To indent a line of code to the right, use >>

To indent a line of code to the left, use <<

To indent a block of code, visually select it (press v and then move until you have your selection) and then press < or >.

vim has some built-in support for formatting text based on the filetype.

The shortcut for this is =

To format the entire document: gg=G

vim allows you to apply shortcuts to a range.

This is done by prefixing the shortcut with the number representing your range (Ex: 4J).

The shortcut to mark a position as the start of a range is m, followed by the variable you wish to store this range in (Eg: ma).

To apply a shortcut to a range using markers, postfix the command with ' followed by the marker variable (Eg: <'a).

vim allows you to record a sequence of keystrokes to be played back.

This is done with the shortcut q followed by the variable you wish to store the macro in (Eg: qa).

Once you've started recording, all following keystrokes will be recorded (including moving in and out of normal mode).

When you are ready to complete your recording, hit q again.

To replay a specific macro, use @ followed by the variable you used when recording (Eg: @a)

To replay the macro you just replayed, use @@