Vim Install

If Vim isn’t already installed on your system, now’s the time to do it. To install Vim, use the following commands based on your operating system:

  • Ubuntu/Debian: apt-get install vim
  • CentOS/Fedora: yum install vim
  • macOS: brew install vim
  • Windows: Although Vim wasn’t originally designed for Windows, setting it up on your Windows system is quite simple.
  • Visit the Vim website’s download page. Select the appropriate installer (either 32-bit or 64-bit) based on your system's specifications.
  • Once the .EXE file is downloaded, run it and follow the on-screen instructions to install Vim. You can choose to stick with the default settings or adjust options such as the installation directory based on your preferences.
  • That's all there is to it! You've successfully installed Vim on Windows and can now begin using its powerful features for text editing, coding, and customization.Here’s a rewritten version to avoid duplication:

The Unique Approach of Vim

Vim differentiates itself from most text editors by employing a few fundamental principles. Although it might appear complex initially, the key ideas behind Vim are straightforward. These two core concepts—modal editing and operators—make Vim distinctive and powerful.

Vim optimizes text editing by using modes. You spend more time navigating and editing code than typing it, so Vim focuses on powerful navigation. For example, press G to jump to the bottom of a file or gg for the top.

You may wonder how Vim knows whether you’re using G to move or to input text. This is where its different modes come into play. The function of each key depends on the mode you are currently in.

In Normal mode, pressing G moves your cursor to the final line of the document. However, in Insert mode, pressing G will simply add the letter to your text. By default, Vim starts in Normal mode. To begin entering text, you need to switch to Insert mode by pressing i. Once finished, pressing Esc will bring you back to Normal mode.

Apart from Normal and Insert modes, Vim also offers other modes that we’ll cover later.

Operators

If you're accustomed to using arrow keys, or buttons like page up, page down, home, and end for moving through text, Vim provides an even more powerful and precise way to navigate.

For example, if you want to delete text starting from the middle of a sentence to the end of a line, position your cursor at the starting point, and press d$. In this command, d tells Vim to delete, and $ indicates the command should continue to the end of the line.

Initially, this might feel unusual, but with practice, you'll find it incredibly efficient. Vim’s command structure forms a language of its own, and once you become comfortable with it, editing becomes much more fluid.

In the previous example, d serves as an operator. Operators in Vim allow you to perform various actions like deleting, modifying, copying, and more.

Starting Vim

When launching Vim from the command line, several useful options are available:

For example, to open my_file.txt with the cursor on line 33:

vim +67 file.txt
  • +NUM: Starts Vim with the cursor on line NUM.
  • +/{pattern}: Positions the cursor on the first line containing “pattern.”
  • +cmd or c cmd: Runs the specified cmd as an Ex command after opening the file.
  • x: Encrypts the file on read/write. On subsequent opens, only the password is required, though the encryption isn’t very strong.

This is useful for debugging code or quickly navigating to specific lines, especially over SSH.

Example:

Below command opens the file, removes line 466, and then saves and exits all in one step.

vim file.txt +"46d|x"
  • vim file.txt: This opens the file.txt file in Vim.
  • +: This tells Vim to execute the following command after opening the file.
  • 46d: This deletes line 46. In Vim, d is the delete command, and the number before it specifies the line to delete.
  • |: This allows chaining multiple commands in Vim.
  • x: This command saves the changes and exits Vim. It is equivalent to :wq (write and quit).