Openwest 2015 - Erik Falor - "From Vim Muggle to Wizard in 10 Easy Steps" (8)

Vi is more than just a text editor; it has become a way of life for power users who can get more done than their peers who use traditional pointy-clicky editors.
In this talk you will uncover an unseen world inhabited by Wizards who effortlessly modify their text using powerful commands built upon surprisingly simple concepts. It is my goal is to invite you into this world and to arm you with 10 of the most useful Vi concepts, giving you the biggest personal productivity boost that can be had in 50 minutes.
We will discuss the most successful Vi clone of them all, Vim, which is available on just about any platform you might encounter and has been actively developed for over 20 years. We will also explore Neovim, a project that seeks to modernize and streamline the world's best editor.
Whether you are already a Vi wizard or an uninitiated muggle, there is something new for you to learn in this session.
Thursday, May 7th, 10:30am-11:15am
Room SB 134 (Large)

[@gracen9714]

Awesome talk! Loads of humor, great historical context-ing, genuine enthusiasm from speaker, well-prepped content.... all in all, pretty awesome presentation. Thanks for posting!

[@AndreasAltendorfer]

I'm using vim since 1982 and every time I watch videos like this, I learn something new ;-)

[@stevefoster4732]

You mean vi?

[@nkristianschmidt]

@@stevefoster4732 or 1992

[@stevefoster4732]

@@nkristianschmidt Yes, probably just a typo.

[@nkristianschmidt]

@@stevefoster4732 mmmmnoooo, it is something deeper...like this commentry thread...and my lockdown boredome...

[@ewfalor]

The slides are now at unnovative.net/vim_muggle_to_wizard.pdf Dotfiles are at github.com/fadein/dotvim

[@NostraDavid2]

Hi Erik, I loved the presentation! I learned a lot! I am curious what you used as presentation software. You used figlet for the large text, that was clear by your demonstration, but you had some sort of pagination going on?

[@ILaiG]

Hi Erik. Thank you for what you're doing. I've just completed your shell-tutor course (well, got to a point where student access seems to be mandatory to git clone assn0). You just make learning these things effortless. I'm so grateful to you. Would you care packing this lecture handout into a vim-tutor? The built-in vimtutor is all about navigation. It doesn't provide a clear path to actually start using vim. From my experience with your shell-tutor, your 10 vim steps would make a great path.

[@landnoman824]

hooray! Vim evangelist.

[@bhupeshimself]

Ah man I implemented the in-text command execution thing like 2 days ago after switching to vim full-time and now I realised there is a better way to do it !!!! Worth watching, thanks 🔥

[@neaumusic]

3:44 "ken thompson, if you've looked up history this guy's a genius"

[@RamakrishnaAppicharla]

He is awesome...

[@RamakrishnaAppicharla]

Absolutely fantabulous ending... Wah!!! May the VIM be with us... Always...

[@mohamedaminebenmabrouk]

One of the best vim talks !!! Thank you so much

[@MrApplewine]

I've concluded that using Vim is not the hard part. Setting it up is the hard part.

[@kelly5247]

I agree! neocomplete is easier to setup than youcompleteme haha.

[@Baconator1368]

? there's literally nothing to set up. just type in "vim" in a terminal and you're all set.

[@davidchristenes9062]

@@Baconator1368 If you program in any language you know that IS not true... Plain vim lacks a lot of his potential, plain vs code or plain sublime/atom are 1000x better than vim... You don't have simplistic code completion, and If you say some shit like "hur dur real programmers don't use completion" you really don't program anything is just a poser. So yes, Vim potential came with a long setup time, when it's done vim is Just fast than anything.

[@Baconator1368]

@@davidchristenes9062 Vim has simplistic code completion. Just type -n while in insert mode. I use it all the time. It seems you're just not aware of the features of vim. And you don't need a massive complex "long time set up" to get efficient at vim. My vimrc is only 21 lines and I'm able to edit code at a much faster rate than in VS code. Although I do agree if you are a new programmer, you shouldn't try to learn vim at the same time as learning your first language. But there is a reason they are teaching vim to these MIT kids. Once you become comfortable in programming, you are doing yourself a huge favor if you learn vim.

[@davidchristenes9062]

@@Baconator1368 I totaly agree with you, don't get my wrong... but you just add to my arguments. It's not by default, PLAIN VIM don't came with almost anything, you don't open vim and magicaly knows that vim had a simplistic autocompleter, as the famous meme people don't even know how to quit vim on the first try. About those features for example, i use vim for years not only vim but mainly vim, and i never used the simplistic completion... I never even heard of that in fact... If you type autocomplete for vim on KZbin or Google you will face YCM plugin. What i'm trying to say is, vim does not came as an easy editor people who never use vs code in their life can install right now and use some awesome features, the learning curve is massive fast. Vim don't have that, a new vim user will not be aware of all vim features he will need to search even for the basic ones like highlight and line numbers(that IS not the case for many others text editors). There no simply thing when we talk about vim.

[@Ellieakacija]

>Gives talk about being more efficient >mashes jjjjjjjjjjjj to scroll

[@padraig6563]

or just { } p g g ' '' to scroll

[@NostraDavid2]

While true, I think it was a boon to the presentation. If someone ^d or ^u I usually can't mentally follow along which direction they jumped, so using jjjjj makes for a smoother experience. But yes, the irony is not lost on me.

[@Mietchannel]

Such a good presentation, idk how but he managed to make a somewhat boring topic exciting

[@Sawta]

I liked the talk, but a lot of this flew over my head.

[@anteconfig5391]

damn. I didn't know you could write a program in the editor and make it run and output back into the editor. That sound useful.

[@mercurysquad]

Phenomenal talk!

[@vertigo6982]

vim.. where hitting your keyboard with a hammer will actually do something.

[@reveluv8851]

@@knightsofni0 :quit is hard to get if you hit it with a keyboard

[@MrDienigma]

Can I get the download link to the download bundle?

[@redartist]

I didn't really understand much, but i just enjoyed the speaker's nerdy passion for the history and evolution of vim. the jokes were good too, but it felt like the audience were just dead or tired at that point.

[@jsd4544]

Great talk 🙂

[@picosdrivethru]

I think bill thought very much about design, he's a big design inspiration for me actually

[@remrevo3944]

5:23 I actually have caps lock bound to Ctrl and use Ctrl-k and Ctrl-l to escape, as I often use Ctrl for other programs.

[@neotherebeltn]

Where can we find the lab files used in this video

[@aqg7vy]

Great talk

[@mbrumlow]

I feel like this guy's jokes were lost on this audience. :(

[@anteconfig5391]

That's ok 'cause it went right over their heads and straight into the camera for us to enjoy.

[@charlesfleetwood3914]

@@anteconfig5391 lol

[@doodoostickstain]

can we get the vimrc to follow along? Edit: i'm stupid. i saw "broken link", and didn't scroll further down or click. scroll down for link ::rolls eyes:: lol

[@arielgabizon78]

updated link to demo file?

[@geoptus]

Has amyone managed to find the demo file? have searched high and low and would love to follow along.

[@ThoughtLateral]

Yes. He has removed them from his website (unnovative.net) but thanks to someone archiving them, I found them here: ZIP containing the demo.txt he uses in the presentation: web.archive.org/web/20150804204922/unnovative.net/OpenWest_vim.zip PDF with the presentation slides: web.archive.org/web/20150804204922/unnovative.net/Erik_Falor_Vim_Wizard.pdf

[@xealit]

thanks a lot!

[@SwarangaSarma]

I completed 10 years of programming in my job this year and I have mostly done Java. I have never managed to get over the hump of the initial learning curve of vim mainly because I don't see the value of the editor in my profession. I can do the basic stuff like search/replace, explore production logs etc but I still don't see why I would use this as my main IDE replacement. Even if I could get to a stage where I am a really good at editing text, for me, typing/editing has never been my main bottleneck. Most of the time I am staring at the code, mentally linking it to the rest of the project, thinking about the data structures, interfaces, seeing how if I change something breaks compilation in some other file/module etc. When it comes to changing text, I am never really editing text, I am refactoring, which is a big difference for me. For instance, I am never playing with lines/words - I am working with methods, expressions, classes and their hierarchy. A common refactoring would be to "move this method to its parent class" or something like "extract this expression that I am passing to a method call into a local variable and also replace it with the new local variable in the two other places where I am reevaluating the same expression needlessly; oh and also assign a good name for the variable based on the type/expression context and also immediately give me the control back so I can simply type a different variable name if I feel the default you assigned is not good enough" - this entire refactoring is one command Ctrl+Alt+V. How will I do these simple refactorings in vim which does not have such deep understanding of what the text represents? I am not trying to insult anyone; infact I do want to learn vim and get really better at it. Why wouldn't I if it helps me be more effective in my job? I am not married to any IDE nor do I hold any stock of any iDE company. But everytime I bring this up in a vim community, I get downvoted or told I haven't used it correctly. And I really admire the folks which have shown the dedication to learn this tool and get so much better at it but I could never convince myself if it is for me and is worth the effort to spend months learning it.

[@ravenoversnow]

You've mentally divided vim from IDEs, when that's not the case. IDEs have vim plugins, both Intellij or Eclipse have good ones. Rethinking vim as an abstract 'keyboard interface' instead of just a text editor is the point I'm stressing. This interface may be applied to various tools: IDEs, text editors, web browsers, music players, etc. Applying this interface to various keyboard related tasks can improve one's efficiency in repetitive typing actions, writing boilerplate syntax, and navigation/searching/reading code, etc. Your specific point, regarding refactoring methods/classes is directly address with vim's notion of a text object. Moving, editing, replacing text objects (be they classes, methods, functions) is one of vim's strengths.

[@afroninjadeluxe]

Doesnt Blender fall under the category of "mashing buttons and not caring about under the hood"?

[@randomness3235]

Where can I get that OpenWest2015_vim.tgz, it's no longer available from that site.

[@yandereSyndrome]

The intro blew out my ears

[@YeshwanthReddy]

RIP

[@rohscx]

Thanks 🙏

[@jaytaylor9045]

C.O.M. Count Operator Motion

[@frozen_tortus]

10:43 starts

[@LarryDias]

I would a link to download his files, does seem good.

[@ThoughtLateral]

demo.txt: pastebin.com/SJ8DeFCH ZIP containing the demo.txt he uses in the presentation: web.archive.org/web/20150804204922/unnovative.net/OpenWest_vim.zip PDF with the presentation slides: web.archive.org/web/20150804204922/unnovative.net/Erik_Falor_Vim_Wizard.pdf

[@chandbasha6008]

@@ThoughtLateral Thank you so much

[@TripurariSSINGH]

@@ThoughtLateral Thanks

[@jainramchurn4059]

@@ThoughtLateral Thank you.

[@anthonydesouza9983]

Slides: unnovative.net/Erik_Falor_Vim_Wizard.pdf

[@_xeere]

Kept thinking those plugs were the x button on an advert.

[@jag831]

There is a problem with knowing vim, and Eric's absolutely right: you want to :x from everywhere, and "w" even when typing a url...

[@tissuepaper9962]

The number of times I've accidentally typed ":wq" at the end of a file in some other editor is embarrassing lol.

[@jag831]

@@tissuepaper9962 damn muscle memory haha

[@user-he4ef9br7z]

Pressing J on a browser and wondering why it isn't scrolling down.

[@NostraDavid2]

@@user-he4ef9br7z quick, install the addon Vimium or Tridactyl!

[@user-he4ef9br7z]

@@NostraDavid2 I'm more of a Vieb man myself.

[@nicewook]

Thanks for the good job! wish you could share your ppt and vimrc, etc. duno why, but I cannot access to unnovative.net

[@ewfalor]

+Kiwook Jeong Thanks for your encouraging words. I recently moved house and changed my internet provider, and my RPi was offline for a bit. Please try again!

[@Maaruks]

is vim better than emacs?

[@finan2249]

+Maaruks YES!

[@AntonGraschenkov]

+Maaruks Just try emacs with evil-mode ;)

[@doodoostickstain]

jihad, jihad

[@CanMetan]

Or you can try spacemacs. I think Vim is already complicated enough. My pinky thanks me for not using emacs.

[@jerril42]

You have to make that choice yourself. The tricky bit is they both are hard to learn, so you may be tempted to stay with the first one you try. I tried vim, then emacs, and went back to vim mostly because I already had vim in my head. I've never looked back, vim is awesome. You can't go wrong by learning it.

[@compphysgeek]

Emacs Rules! .. in particular in combination with evil mode!

[@dr.5404]

Shortcut lis: Esc - Undo all actions Shift + : - Show command line i - INSERT Ctrl + w + v - Create new window Ctrl + w + H/J/K/L - Switches to the windowses h - Move the cursor one character left Ctrl + J - Move the cursor down one line Ins - Paste p - Paste y - Copy i - Move the cursor one character right O - Move the cursor to the begining of the line $ - Move the cursor to the end of the line G - Move the cursor to the end of file a - Insert text after the cursor A - Insert text at the end of the line x - Delete character at cursor dw - Delete a word dO - Delete to the begining of a line d$ - Delete to the end of a line d) - Delete to the end of sentence dgg - Delete to the beginning of the file dG - Delete to the end of the file dd - Delete line 3ddd - Delete three lines r{text} - Replace the character under the cursor R - Replace characters instead of inserting them yy - Copy current line into storage buffer P - Paste storage buffer before current line u - Undo the last operation Ctrl + r - Redo the last undo ?search_text - Search document for search_text going backward n - Move the next instance of the result from the search N - Move to the previous instance of the result v - Enter visual mode per character V - Enter visual mode per line d - Delete a word :w - Save the file :q - Quit :w file_name - Save the file with the new file name :wq - Save the file and quit :q! - Quit vim without saving the changes Shift + v - Select full lines

[@lksjfadlk]

47 people use emacs.

[@randomness3235]

lol

[@cloakintersection7756]

the ten steps were supposed to be easy

[@jacobitosuperstar]

i learned nothing... i will just continue eternally in vim as a fucking dumbass...

[@speakthetruth3684]

@@jacobitosuperstar in 45 minutes all I learnt was how to comment out multiple lines 😭

[@jacobitosuperstar]

@@speakthetruth3684 you are a master, i didn't get that either.

[@padraig6563]

why did he spend like 3 minutes on :s when every modern text editor has this feature

[@moofymoo]

well, well, but wizards don't misclick keys and puke vim commands in file they are editing.

[@catlord69]

horrible pov

[@thingsiplay]

I am 10 minutes in and he still just talks around. This is not the kind of talk I am looking for.

[@erxiaowang7577]

Vim is great, but this speech is just so ......

[@Loppy2345]

Wow, the arrogance of VIM users who thinks they are superior to everyone else puts me off from calling myself a VIM user.

[@trashcan3958]

People say that vim will make you more productive, but from what I have seen so far, it takes way more key strokes to do something in vim than other text editors. And having multiple modes for different opdrations is just dumb.

[@eatcomics]

I mean, it can save you time in certain repetitive instances, it's also the only editor that I've found that I can navigate around a file quickly (besides emacs of course) But yeah, I mean, depends on how into vim you get, and really any productivity gains are completely foobar by the amount of time you spend fucking with your config file. Still definitely something you should know if you're a sysadmin or do a lot of programming on linux. Even if it's not your main editor for code, it can be really useful for XML files, config files, and just supporting files like that. It's not for everyone, or every situation, but it's a damn good tool to keep in your belt. (I started using spacemacs in evil mode and I get the best of both worlds, except it's sooo much more bloated and slow than vim. But as an IDE, it's pretty amazing.)

[@The9TKitsune]

Thing is, Vim's magic really only emerges when you're doing mass text manipulation. If you're just using it to write small things with minimal editing, it's just fancy Notepad. But if you're, say, working with a massive code base and need to move around and do big edits very fast, it's amazing. Vim is also very very fast, and can load massive files without any lag.

[@The9TKitsune]

In the words of a famous stack overflow answer: you dont get vim cause you dont grok vi. Vi is a language, and vim normal mode can be thought of much like a REPL. Once you understand the grammar, and the mnemonics for the words, you can mash it together in very powerful ways- this is what makes it better than a generic set of shortcuts.

[@coolkats9331]

Vim isn't for boys but men

[@josephmbimbi]

10 minuts in. I find the speaker arrogant and obnoxious with this wizard / geniuses theme and this kind os "i'm awesome attitude". Maybe it is some kind of joke i'm just not into or whatever but it sure annoys me a lot. But hey it's not like this elite whatever attitude is not pervasive among programmers.

[@NostraDavid2]

I think he meant them as nerdy references and not as actual "we're better than them", but I understand why you'd feel that way.

[@null7936]

Exel at annoyance , become awesome genius at it !!!

[@wolandsmachine]

horrible presentation