My Journey into Vim — Week 2: Expanding My Toolkit

Introduction

Originally, I planned to post updates weekly, but I decided to take more time to solidify my grasp of Vim’s basic movements and commands. This extra time allowed me to build muscle memory and integrate Vim into my daily workflow. As I used Neovim more at work, I inevitably encountered challenges and inefficiencies, which pushed me to explore better solutions and expand my knowledge.

One major breakthrough during this period was configuring my Neovim setup. I watched TJ DeVries’ video on installing and configuring Kickstart for Neovim, which completely changed my approach to Vim customization. I highly recommend this video as a starting point for setting up a powerful yet minimalistic Vim environment. If you're just beginning (like I am), the default Kickstart configuration is more than sufficient.

Additionally, I found Vi and Vim Editors Pocket Reference by Arnold Robbins (O’Reilly) to be an invaluable resource. While not a cover-to-cover read, it serves as an excellent reference for solving problems and discovering new features.

Horizontal Movements Beyond Words

In the previous post, we covered w, b, and e for word-based movement. Now, let’s explore additional essential commands:

• 0 — Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line.

• $ — Moves the cursor to the end of the line.

• _ — Moves to the first non-whitespace character on the current line.

• ^ — Moves to the first non-empty character on the current line.

Another incredibly useful movement feature is searching within a line using f, F, t, and T:

• f<character> — Moves the cursor to the next occurrence of <character> on the current line.

• F<character> — Moves the cursor to the previous occurrence of <character>.

• t<character> — Moves the cursor before the next occurrence of <character>.

• T<character> — Moves the cursor before the previous occurrence of <character>.

• ; — Repeats the last f, F, t, or T command forward.

• , — Repeats the last f, F, t, or T command backward.

Example:

Given the line with cursor on beginning of the line:

bool isFox = name == "Fox";

If the cursor is at the beginning of the line:

• Pressing f= moves to the first =.

  

• Pressing ;; moves to the third =.

  

• Pressing , moves back to the previous =.

  

• Using t= instead of f= will stop before the = instead of on it.

  

These commands are excellent for quickly navigating within a line without excessive use of h and l.

Quick Character and Word Replacements

Vim offers powerful ways to modify text efficiently. Here are two essential ones:

• r<character> — Replaces the current character with <character>, without entering Insert mode.

• ciw — Changes the current word, deleting it entirely and switching to Insert mode.

• cw — Changes from the cursor position to the end of the word.

Example:

Let's say we mistyped "Kat" instead of "Cat":

Kat is sleeping.

With the cursor on K, pressing rc changes it to "Cat" without entering Insert mode.

Cat is sleeping.

If we want to change the entire word, we can use ciw and type a new word (important - this is entering insert mode):

Dog is sleeping.

Adding New Lines Efficiently

Vim provides a fast way to insert new lines:

• o — Creates a new line below the current one and enters Insert mode.

• O — Creates a new line above the current one and enters Insert mode.

Before discovering o, I used to move to the end of the line ($), enter Insert mode (a), and press Enter—a tedious process. Now, o and O are game changers for quickly adding new lines.

Searching for Patterns

One of Vim’s most useful features is its built-in search functionality:

• /pattern + Enter — Searches for pattern forward in the file.

• n — Jumps to the next occurrence of the pattern.

• N — Jumps to the previous occurrence.

This is extremely useful for quickly navigating large files.

Enhancing Search with Telescope

If you're using Neovim, Telescope takes searching to another level with fuzzy searching and file navigation. It allows you to:

• Search across files efficiently, making it easy to find the right one.

• Perform fuzzy searches within the current buffer, filtering results dynamically.

• Quickly locate and open files, leveraging built-in sorting and filtering.

• Browse and switch between buffers effortlessly.

• Search through your Neovim command history or recently used files.

Telescope works seamlessly with the Kickstart Neovim setup, making it an ideal addition to any Vim workflow. With just a few keybindings, it significantly improves navigation and search efficiency. If you find Vim's default search functionalities a bit limiting, integrating Telescope is a game-changer.

To better understand how to effectively use Telescope and its capabilities, it's worth watching TJ DeVere's video mentioned at the beginning. It provides a quick way to set up and customize Telescope to fit your needs. Beyond that, the video is packed with valuable insights that can rapidly take your Neovim productivity and speed to the next level.

Wrapping Up

This week, I expanded my toolkit with more efficient movement commands, quick replacements, and better ways to search within files. My experience configuring Neovim with Kickstart and using tools like Telescope has made my Vim workflow feel much smoother.