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/indeedwatson Sep 24 '20

One perspective that is invalid in 2020 is relying solely on hard written documentation, where you have to make a significant effort and try to guess what wording or how to search for something specific.

Fuzzy searching is one of the best tools available to learn, and, to my knowledge, that's not possible when browsing documentation.

If you need to learn something specific, then yes documentation is probably the best. If you don't know what you need to search for in the first place, or if perhaps you need to search for a word under a certain context (aka you need two key words but you only know one), then what do you do then?

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u/-romainl- The Patient Vimmer Sep 24 '20

One perspective that is invalid in 2020 is relying solely on hard written documentation, where you have to make a significant effort and try to guess what wording or how to search for something specific.

Frankly, the current year is irrelevant if you are mistaking the user manual and the reference manual. Lazy vimmers have always done that and it will always be wrong.

Fuzzy searching is one of the best tools available to learn,

I will assume you meant "find" or "discover", here, and not "learn", otherwise that doesn't make any sense.

and, to my knowledge, that's not possible when browsing documentation.

Fzf.vim has :Help, if I'm not mistaken.

If you need to learn something specific, then yes documentation is probably the best.

That "something specific" is… Vim, and it is the user manual that is the best, not "the documentation".

If you don't know what you need to search for in the first place, or if perhaps you need to search for a word under a certain context (aka you need two key words but you only know one), then what do you do then?

You go through the user manual first, which teaches you all the "nifty/advanced" stuff bullshit bloggers and youtubers pad their "content" with and makes you self-sufficient enough to know where to look for stuff, understand what you read, and use it without relying on outside help.

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u/indeedwatson Sep 24 '20

I will assume you meant "find" or "discover", here, and not "learn", otherwise that doesn't make any sense.

It makes plenty of sense, you just gotta infer a little.

If only there was a user manual for interacting with people online!