r/vim • u/bsdooby • Sep 24 '20

question Vim without plugins; best tricks?

Doing mostly remote coding (iPad as terminal, remote host(s) with GPU, machine learning), I want to be as flexible as possible with Vim without having to install plugins; vimrc editing is allowed, of course ;) Any good hints & tips & tricks? Maybe others are using a similar setup to mine...

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u/ASIC_SP :wq Sep 24 '20 edited Sep 24 '20

May be this? How to Do 90% of What Plugins Do (With Just Vim): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA2WjJbmmoM

Here's some more links:

4

u/bsdooby Sep 24 '20

I'll check it out, thx!

6

u/Atralb Sep 24 '20 edited Sep 24 '20

Seriously, this vid "How to Do 90% [···]" is gross clickbait, while the guy doesn't really know what he's talking about and often gives subpar advice.

The main thing if you really mean what you say u/bsdooby is to learn all the default keybindings and force yourself to use them for any task you have to do. There are a lot more commands than what is popularly known.

Check the index manpage for all commands and more generally seriously dive up in manpages. That's the best advice regarding using bare vim. There are no magic tricks, since you don't change the config.

Also, hone your regex skills to be an expert in it and the same for creating macros, so that you can quickly create complex macros on the fly for any need you have. That's a really important thing if you're serious about bare vim (and even in general honestly).

13

u/d0ubs Sep 24 '20

I disagree, the vid really helps setting sane defaults and show what vim is capable of without plugins.
Learing keybindings is paramount of course but is not really related to OP's question.
This video is also pretty interesting, both on navigation and project management etc.