Learning Vim in a Week

Mike Coutermarsh presents a talk based on his great blog post, Learning Vim in a Week. The talk is beginner focused and covers getting up and running, and eventually productive with Vim.
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[@kennyken7604]

after opening vim for the first time, you can''t quit. that's how addictive it is

[@monkeydkfetus]

:q!

[@aswintgopal]

😂😂😂

[@VeryVeryBlackGuy]

I felt these words, i really had to exit from vim thru restart :')

[@johannielsen8197]

:q :P

[@marshallhughes4514]

@@VeryVeryBlackGuy lol. What is that old joke? If you ever want to get a new password put a newbie in Vim and ask them to quit. The resulting stream of characters will be the hardest password to crack.

[@pangpengmaster]

I learnt Vim a year ago. I could probably say, it is the most significant thing i've learned in my life just after learning how to read.

[@AdamSmith-de5oh]

@Rep 101 I would say more life the difference between using two fingers to type and looking down at the keyboard to full on touch typing.

[@mattk6343]

@@AdamSmith-de5oh When you combine touch typing + vim mastery, passersby are like "WTF is that guy doing, that's impossible"

[@krazyhand1653]

The lecture starts at 11:00

[@robodoctor]

omg. thanks

[@Tux0xFF]

Thank you, You just saved me 10 minutes and 59 seconds

[@andrewbennett2903]

@@Tux0xFF No, he saved you 11 minutes. Time starts at 0, not 1 second.

[@garthok6224]

@@andrewbennett2903 well it depends on which second he clicked the time in the first comment.

[@user-yr1zx2nc5k]

BrewNCode 哈哈哈哈哈哈

[@angela_jx]

One of the biggest advantages I’ve had with using vim for about 3 years now is that it simply doesn’t matter what system you’re on, whether if there’s Sublime or VS Code or whatever you usually use. Vim or Vi is pretty much pre-installed on every system. So you’re not only more effective and efficient but you’re also not dependent on any other text editor going forward

[@dysonlu]

4:12 "God forbid Eclipse". I already love this video! LOL

[@husam1919]

I agree with you, it's a well-made talk. However, that sentence hit me right in the feels :(

[@peripona]

That’s the most fluent talk on vim I have seen. Motivates me to start it now

[@EarnestRedwoodLINUXMASTER]

Thanks Mike you did a great job on how I should approach Vim. I am a Linux Admin and form looking at this video this will help me out about.

[@Pittsburghfix]

Great video , I am now learning vim and it's going well after only a day. The one thing that helped me was to use chrome extension vimium in conjunction with vim. Seems to be easier as I am making use of all the navigation commands while browsing the web.

I started learning Vim with this video around 6 years ago. I came across Vim when I had RSI problems in my wrist and try to get rid of mouse. Since then I am using Vim mainly. Thanks again!

[@humbertocontreras]

Totally agree. Learning Vim is a process. I've been using it for about 13 years and I'm still learning new things every month.

[@herewego1067]

You must be dumb as fuck then because there is not that much things to learn on vim. 13 years lmao, stop being extra

[@ahmaddynugroho]

Wtf dude, It took me less than a month to get used to basic vim. And actually using it to code

[@kosodrzewinka]

This was insanely helpful! Been using Vim for around 2 months and this video really was a breakthrough for me.

[@alexanderkaiser7377]

Great Talk! Thx! On El Capitan you don't need Karabiner. Simply adjust "Key Repeat" and "Delay Until Repeat" under System Preferences > Keyboard. I'm from Germany and use a German Keyboard Layout for tickets and mail and from now on an US Layout for coding and vim. If I need Umlauts, I switch back and forth with ctrl+space instantly.

[@ThomasKingo1]

This was really inspiring. Vim sounds like an investment in life. Only one thing left to do. Practice, practice, practice.

[@MaggotDiggo1]

Learning Vim is like learning to type. It's frustrating but worth it in the long run.

[@KensterInSilico]

Thank you for introducing me to Vim and suggesting vimtutor. Life changing video!

[@anteconfig5391]

With you help I think I can learn vim in 2 days! Thank you very much.

[@edotk]

best vim intro i've seen to date! +1

[@theena]

Started vim last week. Thank you for this.

[@samsamhuns928]

Wtf, this is some life-changing material. Especially after reducing my key delay I think my typing speed just exploded lol.

[@BishishtBhatta]

thanks for the screencast man :) really appreciated :)

[@Ahabite]

Presenter's dotfiles: github.com/mscoutermarsh/dotfiles

[@joemw8806]

The hero we need;

[@javierchacon1456]

Excellent starting point to learn this tool. Thanks a lot.

[@bastianwegge]

Thanks a lot for this! Perfect tutorial to start from.

[@marufhasan9365]

One cool thing I have learned recently that Crtl+C does the same thing as ESC, which saved me a lot of time when changing mode. Another thing is that you can jump to any line by typing 'gg'. That certainly makes navigation easier.

[@limitless1692]

I remaped Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V to copy and paste.. I still use Y for yank text and P for puting it ... But I love the convenience to copy paste from other applications, through the OS clipboard... Fun times :)

[@metthewsobol]

Very comprehensible introduction, thanks! :)

[@prasannarajaram4713]

I should actually _thank you_ for the nice presentation. I just want to take all your points and use it for *Emacs*. It fits it well 1. Different from everything you have used before 2. Don't start at work 3. Break up with your mouse 4. But can it? ---- yes it can! 5. Always a better way! 6. Learn something every week And the quote from Tom too... " Sometimes you got to work a a little so you can ball a a lot "

[@filipetamaral]

This key repeat tip, THANK YOU!

[@nicemelbs]

Thanks for this talk. I'm starting to learn vim and yeah, it's a pain in the ass. One thing though, as I get used to moving around and doing advanced stuff in vim, and I press alt+tab to switch to another window, I forgot that I'm in another "mode" it confuses me that I can't navigate say through a web page like I do in vim.

[@DVRC]

I started to learn Vim by my own because i was attracted by it, i am even learning to touchtype by using it a lot. The next step for me would be to get an HHKB and use it to code

[@md.abdullahal-alamin8059]

This is a great tutorial. Thanx a lot...

[@ianpan0102]

[ Emacs User Alert! ] The biggest problem with Vim keybindings that I could think of is that it really gets deep in your brain, and you'll not be able to effectively edit text on other software or platform without constantly reminding yourself NOT to use 'hjkl' to navigate or press 'i' and 'ESC' to hop in and out of Insert Mode. While with Emacs bindings all the navigating shortcuts are prefixed with Ctrl or Meta (Alt) and can be ported to different platforms once you get used to it!

[@kuruptgt]

10:40 the key repeat setting can now be changed in your terminal: defaults write -g InitialKeyRepeat -int 10 # normal minimum is 15 (225 ms) defaults write -g KeyRepeat -int 1 # normal minimum is 2 (30 ms) It's life changing. You're welcome.

[@trieder]

man. a week. i use vim since 20 years and im still learning.

[@dontbetoxic4387]

wow you have to be fast

[@noodle7788]

for those on linux, you can change key repeat with 'xset r rate 300 50', of course can play around with those numbers and throw it in your bashrc for persistence

[@FictionsAndIllusions]

Thank you for this video. I watched this video and got started with VIM. however, I'm struggling with setting up color schemes for VIM. I've loaded the vim file to ~/.vim/colors and configured my .vimrc file, but every time I start VIM I get a long list of errors. I've tried multiple themes and all seem to do the same. Any help is appreciated. I've also subscribed as I'm interested in learning more about VIM and how to maximize efficiency while programming.

[@kudryavtsevalexandr]

Thanks. Not bad presentation for beginners. It introduces some really cool vim's features which I like and using so much at work. And advices are good for people of any level, too (and not about Vim, but everything in our life, when we want become experts), as I think.

[@limitless1692]

True. Becoming an expert at something takes a lot of time... The good part about VIM is that will be here forever. Not like other gui text editors that come and go...

[@TomHallam]

Very Accessible. Great information for someone considering making the switch. If I do cross over from Sublime, this will make it a much better transition. Thank you.

[@xit]

Remapping ESC to Capslock is super beneficial if you have MacBook with touch bar model(2016-2018)

[@evergreen-]

9:18 regarding Caps Lock to Escape key remap, on macOS 13 Ventura the remap can be done natively by going to Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts... > Modifier Keys > in a dropdown menu set Caps Lock key to Escape

[@Sintaxx2]

Very useful Vim intro and entertaining as well! :)

[@WhiteSiroi]

Awesome, thank you mate.

[@informatom]

Very encouraging! Thanks!

[@Starcruiser15]

i was looking for the softdrink Vim!

[@noswonky]

I've been using vi/vim for 32 years and I still consider myself a beginner.

[@shalizi1280]

Very nice presentation, very cool. Thank you

[@GenesisGuerrero]

great presentation, was very useful to me

[@affiliatewatch]

I've been learning for years and still find things difficult 😂 but overall it does increase my productivity. BEWARE: The learning curve is steep however well worth it! 👍

[@TH-gu4wj]

Nice talk. Easy to remain engaged. Thanks!

[@jedgar6653]

This was a great intro to Vim for a someone who's only seen Vim used in memes

[@SoundToxin]

I don't think remapping caps to escape is necessary at all. Been using it for a few years and am pretty good with it. A lot of people go after the capslock to rebind it for other things, so I'm always nervous to pick one and then feel I'm missing out on something else later. In the past I used caps as super while using a Model M because it didn't have a super key. I've seen someone remap it as "hyper" which is a modifier you don't really see on keyboards anymore, and it allowed them to use even more shortcuts. Kind of a neat idea.

[@michalroesler]

Can You please tell what edit should be made in .vimrc to remap CapsLock to Esc key? Everybody talks about doing it, but no one showed exactly how to do this.

[@j_white1305]

Good presentation, thanks!

[@mitchelltaylor2346]

Nice talk thank you. Although I still use the capslock key sometimes so instead of remapping it I tend to use the Ctrl-[ combination which achieves the same thing.

[@GrayOlson]

I like to remap it to "jk" since I never use those two keys next to each other in quick succession.

[@Epsio0]

How do I version control my vimrc? I can open my .vimrc file but I don't exactly know where it's located

[@fmailscammer]

Ctrl+C also works in place of escape without remapping

[@ayoolao.5865]

i have been successful in changing the caplock to escape, but i can't seem to change the escape to caplock. What can i do?

[@hermannpaschulke1583]

Caps lock to escape is a great idea :D

[@nikanj]

I want to learn Vim but at the same time I don't think it will make me more productive. I spend most of my time trying to figure out what's going on and debugging. Only a fraction of my time is spent typing out actual code. Maybe when I reach a stage when I can get an idea and bang it out in 15 minutes then Vim might look more enticing.

[@tuerda]

I agree that actually writing code is not the thing that slows down work. Most work does not happen sitting in front of a terminal typing, but rather mulling things over in your head and figuring out what the right thing to write is. -- That said, I use vim! I don't necessarily use it for speed so much as for the grammar. The way you work in other editors treats text as a collection of letters, rather than sentences, blocks or ideas. Vim helps me write code more or less in the same way that I think about it, and I find that this makes a real difference.

[@rafeu2288]

In this case maybe "Glamorous Toolkit" is more what you need. It focuses on helping the "reading process" by making it less "manual"

[@ruizhang9291]

Map caps-lock to control, use C+[ instead of ESC.

[@AnatolyKhalizev]

In your github repo "dotfiles" we changing gitconfig and other files via terminal comands. It is secure and don't broke my github or other things?

[@clixm]

Anatoly Khalizev Yup! Everything should be fine. If you find problems, please open an issue in the repository. I'd love to know. It's possible mine break, since they are "mine" and I'm constantly changing them :). I recommend using Thoughtbots at first if just getting started. They are better documented.

[@Pablo-qi3hz]

nice! thanks for the video!

[@JosePablo24]

pain on the wrist/right hand while using your mouse is from bad posture, which puts unnecessary stress on your wrist, your elbow should be at the same height as your wrist resting on the table

[@aim__freakz8499]

for some reason i love vim without even using it for programming :D also i always watch these vim videos high ^^

[@SlyPearTree]

I am not sure making key repeat faster is a good idea for a vim beginner as it might delay or even stop them learning all the ways to move the cursor other than just hjkl.

[@elisson357]

Thanks for sharing this.

[@josevillegas5243]

Hello, what do you think of using Sublime in Vintage mode with the VintageEx package?

[@nXqd]

you can start with it. I recommend you to start with something you are familiar with then you'e convinced. You can move fully when you fell like it. But still, it depends on how you learn new things.

[@mattetis]

Actually should have slow key repeat as you should be discouraged of pressing something for a duration and instead try to duplicate the action the exact number of times instead. It will make you a better vimmmer in the long run :)

[@DeadEnvyAlive]

this !

[@prashantsingh-fg3ok]

Yes Change Inside ) is easier to rem. than CI) command . :)

[@omc345]

Is it possible to download the keynotes?

[@rajkrishan3092]

found it very useful... thnx

[@joxim697]

I prefer Ctr + C, instead of Esc, and no need for remapping it to Caps Locks.

[@cocbuilds]

yeah cap locks also works quite well

[@MaggotDiggo1]

One of they tutorials I read recommended J+K to exit insert mode. Your fingers are always on J and K plus no words contain the letters jk.

[@johnc3403]

the caps lock remapping is awesome. Changing modes is as simple as your moving your pinkie one key to the left. Well worth the effort of remapping. In linux you can do it yourself, in windows, there is a small exe that does it for you. Google is your friend. just do it.. ctrl-c is waaaay too much work in comparison... i mean, just look where your caps lock is?

[@johnc3403]

caveat: If you are a two finger typer, ctrl-c may be good enough, but for touch typing, mapping your caps lock key is a no brainer.

[@pepijnkrijnsen4]

@@johnc3403 But what if you need to shout on the internet!?

[@youtongzheng9543]

very clear and engaging presentation

[@haraldurkarlsson1147]

This is neat. Learning anything in depth is difficult. Now try to follow up by doing LaTeX inside Vim - two hard editors one inside the other.

[@Zyztematic]

Or even better: disable key repeat entirely.

[@regedit33]

Yeah, maintaining pressed a key or pressing it multiple times is the equivalent of a code smell. That would be a "Vim smell" meaning that you have to find a better way to do this. example: stop smashing/maintaining j and k. Use Ctrl-e and Ctrl-y, and if you find it too slow, remap it so it scrolls 3 lines instead of one.

[@bradleyfrueh2761]

You don't need to remap the caps lock key to esc. Ctrl+c will cancel commands and has the side effect of escaping out of insert mode.

[@bradleyfrueh2761]

and other modes.

[@danielrodrigoalegriasallo6479]

Pretty useful, thanks.

[@ianpan0102]

I've been using Vim quite extensively and was more productive than ever before. However, after I switched to Emacs, there's no turning back. Board the flagship of holy Emacs, my friend! (If you miss the Vim shortcuts, just turn on Evil Mode in Emacs. You can still eenjoy the world that Emacs gives you) .

[@alexismandelias]

For me vim works best as a plugin for other _IDEs_ like Eclipse. That way I can edit code quickly without sacrificing the functionality provided by an IDE (debugging, bulk refactoring, advanced searching, to name a few)

[@meuko]

You can do all those things with vim too :)

[@AsbjornOlling]

Isn't this the same intro music that Level1Techs uses in their news podcasts?

[@voiceoftreason1760]

i completed vimtutor but the vimcasts still look too advanced for me. i tried a couple.

[@hahahaspam]

I think your wrist was hurting because you were using your arrow keys, and Vim eliminates that. Just think about how contorted your right wrist gets to use the arrow keys for a couple seconds. That's also why I swapped my caps lock and backspace (takes a bit to get used to).

[@MrKlaygomes]

karabiner doesnt work for macos sierra :(

[@user-zi4zh7nb2i]

thanks,i think it is very good for me

[@rahulbhola4657]

Really nice talk . cheers :)

[@rabokel]

I want to learn it because intellij has problems working via x11 forwarding

[@albertodlh]

OS ten! TEN! besides that, awesome talk.

[@Clockworkscom]

windows alternative to karabiner?

[@SubZeroGuitarPlayer]

anyone have a link to the slides?

[@sviatoslavoleksiienko8523]

Guys, do you know some great analog of karabiner in windows 10?

[@limitless1692]

Nice and friendly video. Thanks for sharing :)

[@fallenentity2]

I've heard the opposite and you should slow down your key repeat to force you to use the more efficient commands.

[@LukeWatts85]

Chuck Norris tried Vim once...and only once

[@nickr753]

+Luke Watts When he was done he never needed to write plaintext again.

[@LukeWatts85]

I meant Vim beat him...because it was harder than Chuck Norris

[@khatuntsovmikhail6223]

And he was able quit. Himself. Without google.

[@blasttrash]

Legend says that he is still using Vim to either generate a random string or to quit the program. :P

[@90hijacked]

Legend has it chuck norris wrote all the the helpfiles with a single roundhouse keystroke

[@AmitKumarKhare]

I work in PHP mostly codeigniter in sublime, will work form me?

[@PedroVidalProgramador]

Surely!!

[@Funny97451]

nice keep up the good work.

[@ilobmirt]

Does it have a plugin for a non-modal mode and is there mouse support for vim?

[@kernel_cataclysm7306]

There are some vimrc files where you can add mouse support. Just keeping practicing, you are gonna start to like modal mode.

[@WoodFleshJakubMiziolek]

vim is a modal editor. It is designed to use just with keyboard. It will hurt to learn but it's awesome. There is no point in non-modal mode :)

[@squiresuzuki]

why would you use vim if you didn't want to use modes?

[@jackfrasiercomedy5942]

I liked this video. Evan though everything he says? He says as though it's a question?

[@swamiatma]

This speech pattern is called uptalk? Anyway I really liked his talk?

[@pizzapanni]

@@swamiatma lol

[@MaggotDiggo1]

Closeted Australian.

[@ahmadaziz1800]

This video is so inspiring :]

[@lanceareadbhar]

I learned Vim in an hour. I type "I". Move me cursor and make a small change. Hit 'Esc'. Hold 'Shift' and type "Z" and then "Z". Is there anything else this program can do?

[@dsorangerpvpandpve]

13:00 I also thought of this feature. What a coincidence :D

[@kevinstuart6921]

Vim tutor is amazing.