strangecell (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} strangecell) wrote,@ 2009-06-06 12:33:00 |
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A Vimcremental Vimprovement
Warning: this post has a nerd-level of 1011
The lameness of vim puns is exceeded only by the vimcredibleness of vim. Today I will share my latest revimlation: more effective use of the vim command line.
Command-mode editing is of course one of the best things about vim. Compared to other editors, like as NetBeans for example (which I use frequently and is quite nice in its own way), command-mode editing in vim is just vastly more efficient. You simply can do more with fewer keys strokes, and do it faster and with less effort.
But for a long time there was one part of vim where I could not do command-mode editing: on Vim's own command-line! I could only use the cursor keys there, for history and moving around, but with long command-line strings like deep file names or complicated commands, I really missed being able to move around and change things the Vim-way.
Finally, today, I said to myself, there must be a way to do this, because all things are possible in vim. I'd already discovered some other wonderful command-line features like ctrl-k and ctrl-r, and figured there was some other ctrl-sequence to edit the command-line. Sure enough, there is, ctrl-f (which stands for control-F**k-yeah). To my surprise it opened up an entire new little window called the [Command Line] window. It was surprising because I'd actually run into this window plenty of times before, but accidentally.
On these previous occasions the unexpected appearance of this window had always induced great confusion and annoyance in me. This was because 1) I didn't know what the hell it was, and 2) I didn't know how to get rid of it. Consequently, every single time it appeared, I would engage in a flurry of keystrokes of ESC ESC ESC :clo ENTER CTRL-C CTRL-C Q CTRL-Q... etc., until the damn thing disappeared. For some reason it is just my nature to react in this way, rather than calmly try to figure out and learn about this strange new thing.
Now that I realize what the thing is, I love and worship it. I am dimly aware that this is probably a more general and important truth about people and the world, but right now I am having too much fun working on a class-based parser project to think about that.
Warning: this post has a nerd-level of 1011
The lameness of vim puns is exceeded only by the vimcredibleness of vim. Today I will share my latest revimlation: more effective use of the vim command line.
Command-mode editing is of course one of the best things about vim. Compared to other editors, like as NetBeans for example (which I use frequently and is quite nice in its own way), command-mode editing in vim is just vastly more efficient. You simply can do more with fewer keys strokes, and do it faster and with less effort.
But for a long time there was one part of vim where I could not do command-mode editing: on Vim's own command-line! I could only use the cursor keys there, for history and moving around, but with long command-line strings like deep file names or complicated commands, I really missed being able to move around and change things the Vim-way.
Finally, today, I said to myself, there must be a way to do this, because all things are possible in vim. I'd already discovered some other wonderful command-line features like ctrl-k and ctrl-r, and figured there was some other ctrl-sequence to edit the command-line. Sure enough, there is, ctrl-f (which stands for control-F**k-yeah). To my surprise it opened up an entire new little window called the [Command Line] window. It was surprising because I'd actually run into this window plenty of times before, but accidentally.
On these previous occasions the unexpected appearance of this window had always induced great confusion and annoyance in me. This was because 1) I didn't know what the hell it was, and 2) I didn't know how to get rid of it. Consequently, every single time it appeared, I would engage in a flurry of keystrokes of ESC ESC ESC :clo ENTER CTRL-C CTRL-C Q CTRL-Q... etc., until the damn thing disappeared. For some reason it is just my nature to react in this way, rather than calmly try to figure out and learn about this strange new thing.
Now that I realize what the thing is, I love and worship it. I am dimly aware that this is probably a more general and important truth about people and the world, but right now I am having too much fun working on a class-based parser project to think about that.
