Joel's dev blog

Configuring and using vim

September 25, 2017

4 min read

This looks like a pretty awesome boilerplate!

Well, I just looked at this repository and it just looks amazing.

I cloned the repo to my local computer and installed the configuration.

Vim configuration information

For your information, the vim configurations are stored in ~/.vimrc and ~/.vim_runtime (if you installed the configurations from that repository).

~/.viminfo acts as a cache/history for vim.

Advanced configurations

Note

Use my_configs.vim if you are using amix/vimrc repo.

Color scheme

Add to vim configuations file (for me, my_configs.vim) these lines:

syntax enable
set background=dark
colorscheme solarized

and da-da, the color scheme has changed (make sure you have solarized colorscheme installed beforehand)

Using plugins

The installation shell script from the repository will install most of the plugins, so you just have to use them.

For example, you could use NERDTree by typing ESC + : + NERDTreeToggle.

Use other plugins in the same way. For example, use MRU.vim to see recently opened files: ESC + : + MRU will show you recently opened files.

Tab space

The source file has the size of 2 spaces for a tab but vim is currently configured to use the size of 4 spaces for a tab.

1. How to beautify the file

Download the folder from this repo and put that into sources_non_forked folder if you have installed vim configurations from the ultimate vim configuration repository. Then it’s going to automatically work once you restart vim. Type :Autoformat to use.

Autoformat

2. How to permanently change the tab size to ‘2 spaces’

in .vimrc, paste the following:

set tabstop=2 " The 'size', the with of a tab is set to 2
set shiftwidth=2 " Indents will have width of 2
set softtabstop=2 " The number of columns for a tab is set to 2

consult the stackoverflow question for more detail.

How to autoclose html tag

  1. Download the plugin from the repo.
  2. Put that downloaded repo into ~/.vim/ or any designated folder.
  3. If you are using pathogen, closetag.vim will start automatically working. For additional configurations, see the repo.

How to autocomplete braces

  1. Download the plugin:
git clone git://github.com/jiangmiao/auto-pairs.git
  1. Put it into the right folder (see how we did previous configs).
  2. Then it starts working once you restart vim.

How to search in vim

Search command

ESC + : + / + [search pattern] + enter

Next match

n + enter

Previous match

N + enter

How to navigate in vim

Go forward by word

w

Go back by word

b

Move one character left

h

Move one character right

l

Move one row down

j

Move one row up

k

How to select, copy and paste in vim

Select a line (up/down arrow key to include more/less lines)

V

Select texts (letter by letter)

v   

Select blocks

ctrl + v

Then Delete

d

Copy (called ‘yanking’)

y

Then Paste after cursor

p

Paste before cursor

P

Note: there is no default cutting operation that could be done with one command.

Lines

open a line below the cursor and start insert mode

o

open a line above the cursor

O

How to undo

u

Opening new tabs

ESC + : + tabnew

To open a new tab, and

ESC + : + saveas [filename]

to save the file.


Written by Joel Mun. Joel likes Typescript, React, Node.js, GoLang, Python, Wasm and more. He also loves to enlarge the boundaries of his knowledge, mainly by reading books and watching lectures on Youtube. Guitar and piano are necessities at his home.

© Joel Mun 2023